My reaction to the "Guidelines for the Mag't of Brain Mets" - Article of Interest

[Jackie07]

On my neuropsychological report, Dr. Jacqueline Phillips-Sabol wrote in the Summary and Impression that '... Cognitive decline likely attributable to post-chemotherapy encephalopathy and the effects of frontal neoplasm and gammaknife treatment.'

Everything that kills cancer cells inadvertantly affects our cognitive function, be it systemic (such as chemo) or local (such as radiation).

That's why doctors and researchers try to find the most effective treatment with the least side effect. How to balance cure and side effect is ultimately up to the patient. Are the patients getting adequate information? Are they capable of making decisions based on the information presented to them? I think these are the questions need to be asked. Because 'quality of life' can have a very different meaning to different individual.

After my 25-hour brain tumor surgery (in 1990), many people thought I was 'brain damaged' and was ready to write me off. For a while, after I had been isolated and depressed, I did regress to an 'almost idiot' state. But the plasticity of our brain (see PBS program) is such that we can do amazing things even with so-called 'damaged brain'. I was lucky that my oldest Brother and my In-laws (veteran teacher and principal) all pushed me to work hard and challenged me to challenge myself. So 13 years after my brain was 'damaged', I was tested (during my first chemo)with an IQ still in the superior range.

My father turned 93 this summer. He gets up early every day spending about three hours time doing mild exercise including self massage. He is very, very disciplined from his soldier's training having been a retired colonel from WWII. We all feel lucky to have the longevity gene from both parents (Mother is 85 and stays active).

This summer I got tested again and my IQ had dropped to the 65 percentile range - slightly above average. But guess what? There are many millionaires with IQ like that; I can improve (recover)my IQ again just like I did before; plus, just when are people supposed to be judged merely by their IQ?

After I had graduated from college, I had the privilege to meet Fr. Robert Ronald in an after-work English conversation class he volunteered to teach. In one of his speeches (printed in a collection I helped translate into Chinese) he mentioned how he became incapacitated after he had caught polio at age 28 while doing missionary work in Taiwan. The one sentence that had given me the strongest impression was "...but if you can not move at all, then find something interesting to think about."

Merely 6 years later, while I was recovering from my brain surgery and was in a wheelchair just like him, I found strength in that phrase and amazed everyone by being able to stand up and then walk, talk, function normally again.

Look up the information on Stephen Hawkin, the famous astrophysicist - what kind of 'quality of life' does he have according to most people's standard? He was communicating by blinking his eyes...

I am against torture and do not believe unnecessary suffering. Each of us has to find meaning in all these. I just wanted to share my own experience and the inspiration I have received from others.