George's Personal Story as a Cancer Survivor

For over a year I felt myself getting weaker and unable to do simple chores. I would lose my balance and fall down. I had trouble thinking of words and by the end of each day my voice sounded like a frog croaking. My family doctor had no idea what was causing all this. After prayer, I received a call from my daughter, suggesting a thyroid test. I was hypothyroid, but my primary care doctor over-medicated me and the strange symptoms and the pain in my legs got worse. I decided to go to a thyroid specialist. He believed that I was depressed and in need of Prozac. I disagreed with that diagnosis.

I asked my pastor to help me pray for a true diagnosis. Soon afterward the problems with my vision caused me to go to my eye doctor. She suggested that something was pressing on my optic nerve and told me I should have an MRI as soon as possible.

The same doctor who had said I was depressed soon called me with the news that there were four large tumors in the brain. A neurologist performed a biopsy and the diagnosis was CNS Non Hodgkins Lymphoma--brain cancer. I would have 12 weeks left to live. This was May 5, 1998.

I cried for three days. My wife was in shock and we called all of our four children living in various parts of the country. It was not the dying that caused my emotion but rather the disappointment that my wife would not be able to enjoy the family reunion that had been planned for our 45th wedding anniversary in September. The symptoms had come on so fast and the cancer left me feeling so helpless. I needed help cutting a hamburger; I had trouble feeding myself because my right side was paralyzed; I drooled, had double vision, my legs felt like spaghetti, and my wife could no longer understand what I was saying.

On the fourth day after hearing the diagnosis, I prayed for my family. My wife had begun recovery from Guillain Barre the year before and was just getting her strength back. How will she manage if I die this soon? She deserves to at least enjoy our family reunion and anniversary party. I asked everyone I knew to pray for me that I might live a few weeks longer than doctors were predicting.

I began the first round of chemotherapy and we could not see a future. Doctors did not expect me to live through the treatment. No one could tell us of anyone who lived through this type of cancer. Then the first piece of hope arrived; a man from our church came to my hospital room to visit with us. He brought news that his cousin had survived CNS Lymphoma and had been living a full life the past seven years.

Receiving that gift of hope made us recognize other signs of hope, brought by people that we now think of as angels on earth. I had my last round of chemotherapy in September 1998 and a week later we had the party up in the mountains to celebrate life. Ann and I renewed our marriage vows under a pine tree while friends and family took pictures. It was a big day.

Now, I can no longer build and fix computers for customers, but I can do so many other things that Ann and I have a good life. The chemotherapy and the brain tumors damaged many of the nerves in my legs and it takes longer for me to do things, but I have most of my memory and my thinking power back. Doctors call me a miracle. Last year my wife Ann published a book: "A Caregiver's Story". There is a part in it where I talk about how I came back from a very dark place. Life is good.

George Brandt
Ten year survivor Primary CNS Lymphoma
Broomfield, Colorado
303-438-1428

Ann's note:
CNS Lymphoma is so rare that doctors refer to it as an orphan disease. My goal is to bring this rare sort of brain cancer into public view. The presenting symptoms are somewhat different from other more common types of brain cancer such as the gliomas, the treatment is markedly different, and sometimes the residual effects are more varied. No one should have to become as deteriorated as George before the condition is properly diagnosed. My book is written to offer hope for those newly diagnosed with cancer of all varieties, but especially brain cancer--the sort of cancer than not only visits physical trauma but also steals a person's mind and personality. Many people do not come back from their "dark place." George and I have been so blessed, so very blessed.

The book is:
A Caregiver's Story: Coping with a Loved One's Life-Threatening Illness
by Ann Brandt
iuniverse, December 2007

George