Thursday, April 24, 2014
This won't happen ever again - I recommend you pick up this week's People magazine
I am not a big fan of People magazine. In fact I never read it. However this week's issue (the special double issue of People's 50 Most Beautiful - really???) contains a story about Stephanie Lipscomb. She is the first person to be treated with the re-engineered polio virus developed by Dr. Gromeier at Duke University. It is such an encouraging story and is literally the living proof, in the form of Stephanie, that your donation to the Angels Among Us fund is having a critical impact on moving science from the lab to the patient. John's Tumor Warriors Page
Thank you!
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
A request for support AND an update from the March trip to Duke
Hi,
A request for support:
Yes, the first part of this post is to ask you for monetary support of Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University. This is the home of the world class team of researchers, doctors, nurses and staff that spend their waking hours looking for ways to defeat brain cancer.
Once a year they host a fundraiser known as Angels Among Us, a 3K/5K run combined with a silent auction and a survivor recognition ceremony. Now in its 21st year, it has raised over 14 million dollars to support the Center.
We have formed a team, John's Tumor Warriors, to raise funds for the organization that is central to John's fight against Glioblastoma. Our team page is at John's Tumor Warriors Home Page. If you feel you can support this cause you will find a link to the donation page underneath John's Gonzaga graduation photo.
We will not be running in this event, as it is hosted on the Duke campus and falls between our bimonthly visits. However, for consistency, I will be running the Presidio Trail Run on Sunday April 27th :
Besides this invitation to contribute there will be one other email that comes to you directly from the event website. Thanks in advance for any support you can offer.
The latest Duke report
At the end of March John, Melanie and I made our every eight week visit to Duke. This visit was particularly suspenseful as it was on the heels of the seizure episode in mid-March. It was also going to be our first face to face with the medical team since the MRI that followed the seizure.
MRIs, while a great advance in diagnostics, is still a bit of an art with regards to interpretation. Thus when one is undergoing a series of MRIs as John is, other doctors prefer to defer to the team that is doing the image reads over time. So for the intervening two plus weeks since the MRI was taken in California the local doctors have held off any analysis of the image.We did receive the observation from the Duke team that the image was "fine" but not much more detail.
When we arrived in North Carolina we found out that the John's doctor, Henry Friedman, was unavailable to meet, as he was going to be treated for kidney stones during our visit. His staff assured us his absence had nothing to do with depression over Duke's early exist from the NCAA basketball tournament. :)
In his place the staff did a stellar job of addressing many of the side effects from John's treatment. In addition they conveyed the encouraging news from the MRI that the tumor seems to be "less solid and possibly breaking down". Obviously this is a highly desirable . John will continue with his current treatment regimen as it seems to be having the desired effect. We will return to Duke in mid-May for the next review. I will have another post at that time.
A request for support:
Yes, the first part of this post is to ask you for monetary support of Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University. This is the home of the world class team of researchers, doctors, nurses and staff that spend their waking hours looking for ways to defeat brain cancer.
Once a year they host a fundraiser known as Angels Among Us, a 3K/5K run combined with a silent auction and a survivor recognition ceremony. Now in its 21st year, it has raised over 14 million dollars to support the Center.
We have formed a team, John's Tumor Warriors, to raise funds for the organization that is central to John's fight against Glioblastoma. Our team page is at John's Tumor Warriors Home Page. If you feel you can support this cause you will find a link to the donation page underneath John's Gonzaga graduation photo.
We will not be running in this event, as it is hosted on the Duke campus and falls between our bimonthly visits. However, for consistency, I will be running the Presidio Trail Run on Sunday April 27th :
Besides this invitation to contribute there will be one other email that comes to you directly from the event website. Thanks in advance for any support you can offer.
The latest Duke report
At the end of March John, Melanie and I made our every eight week visit to Duke. This visit was particularly suspenseful as it was on the heels of the seizure episode in mid-March. It was also going to be our first face to face with the medical team since the MRI that followed the seizure.
MRIs, while a great advance in diagnostics, is still a bit of an art with regards to interpretation. Thus when one is undergoing a series of MRIs as John is, other doctors prefer to defer to the team that is doing the image reads over time. So for the intervening two plus weeks since the MRI was taken in California the local doctors have held off any analysis of the image.We did receive the observation from the Duke team that the image was "fine" but not much more detail.
When we arrived in North Carolina we found out that the John's doctor, Henry Friedman, was unavailable to meet, as he was going to be treated for kidney stones during our visit. His staff assured us his absence had nothing to do with depression over Duke's early exist from the NCAA basketball tournament. :)
In his place the staff did a stellar job of addressing many of the side effects from John's treatment. In addition they conveyed the encouraging news from the MRI that the tumor seems to be "less solid and possibly breaking down". Obviously this is a highly desirable . John will continue with his current treatment regimen as it seems to be having the desired effect. We will return to Duke in mid-May for the next review. I will have another post at that time.
Friday, April 4, 2014
We did have some fun in March...
March has been very hectic between the seizure episode and the trip to Duke at the end of the month. I will have a post regarding the latter at some point as there was promising news.
However we started the month with an excellent time at Santa Clara University's Golden Circle Theatre Party aka GCTP. It is a long-standing, annual event in the Valley. This gathering is opportunity for alumni and friends of SCU to raise funds and make new friends for the school. A little on the history of the event and its hosts, the SCU Board of Fellows, can be found here: SCU Golden Circle History
It is a night of entertainment, dinner, and dancing held in downtown San Jose. Melanie and I have supported this event for several years, inviting friends and family to join us at our table. We had long planned that when John graduated from college one of the celebratory events would be having him host a table of his friends at GCTP. With all of the uncertainty regarding his health we held off on acting on our plan. However, life itself is uncertain and we decided to push ahead, inspired by John's own example of perseverance in the face of adversity. It was a good choice.
Now I speak of the Board of Fellows as being the hosts of this event, but it is a mammoth undertaking and the yeoman's work is actually done by a small staff in the University Events office. Karrie, Mary, Blake and Lizzie, who keep this shop humming, had some help this past year from John Foster as, coincidentally, he works for them part-time! In fact, when we told him a couple of weeks before the party that he was going to host a table his first response was, "I can't. I am working the event!". Now that is a dedicated employee!
The evening was a great success both for the Board's goal to "raise some funds, make some friends and have a good time doing so" and for our own group of friends and family. The evening started at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. There we were treated to a performance by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2014 inductees, Hall and Oates. They were preceded by a fine a Cappella group, Supertonic!, comprised of Santa Clara students. Check them out on YouTube.
The balance of the evening was spent at the Fairmont where we enjoyed an excellent dinner and attempted, some of us less successfully than others (cough, cough), some dancing to end the evening.
Here are some pictures from that night.
However we started the month with an excellent time at Santa Clara University's Golden Circle Theatre Party aka GCTP. It is a long-standing, annual event in the Valley. This gathering is opportunity for alumni and friends of SCU to raise funds and make new friends for the school. A little on the history of the event and its hosts, the SCU Board of Fellows, can be found here: SCU Golden Circle History
It is a night of entertainment, dinner, and dancing held in downtown San Jose. Melanie and I have supported this event for several years, inviting friends and family to join us at our table. We had long planned that when John graduated from college one of the celebratory events would be having him host a table of his friends at GCTP. With all of the uncertainty regarding his health we held off on acting on our plan. However, life itself is uncertain and we decided to push ahead, inspired by John's own example of perseverance in the face of adversity. It was a good choice.
Now I speak of the Board of Fellows as being the hosts of this event, but it is a mammoth undertaking and the yeoman's work is actually done by a small staff in the University Events office. Karrie, Mary, Blake and Lizzie, who keep this shop humming, had some help this past year from John Foster as, coincidentally, he works for them part-time! In fact, when we told him a couple of weeks before the party that he was going to host a table his first response was, "I can't. I am working the event!". Now that is a dedicated employee!
The evening was a great success both for the Board's goal to "raise some funds, make some friends and have a good time doing so" and for our own group of friends and family. The evening started at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts. There we were treated to a performance by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2014 inductees, Hall and Oates. They were preceded by a fine a Cappella group, Supertonic!, comprised of Santa Clara students. Check them out on YouTube.
The balance of the evening was spent at the Fairmont where we enjoyed an excellent dinner and attempted, some of us less successfully than others (cough, cough), some dancing to end the evening.
Here are some pictures from that night.
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| Pre-show at the CPA |
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| Waiting for dessert! |
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| Pre-show at the CPA |
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