Return of the blog

It has been quite some time since the blog has been updated, apologies for that but Steve has gotten into FaceBook and has taken that on as his form of communication with many people. I however don't FaceBook so I won't be maintaining that for him.
I don't know where things were left off but I am just going to play quick catch up with the past six months.
First off, you may have caught on by this point...this is Kim, not Steve.
In the past six months the tumor has returned twice. Both times we went after them with what Dr. Howard calls retreatment radiation. It is essentially the same amount of radiation that Steve got during the initial radiation treatments in 2008 but it is given over a longer period of time. The tumors are in the same location but they shift just a little each time they return, they go just outside of the area that was radiated previously. Sneaky little buggers.
The retreatment radiations do quite a number on Steve, they cause serious fatigue and whereas both had significant impact on the left side weakness Steve has from the stroke in 2009, this last round really was hard.
We have had a phenomenal caregiver during the week while I am at work (Thanks Tony, you are truly special to us both and we will never be able to repay you, we love you very much)as being alone has not been an option.
Falls have been a concern for some time now and we have been pretty lucky that Steve has not hurt himself with some of the spills he has taken.
Last Wednesday, we had a bit of bad luck, only a bit, don't panic. Steve lost his footing getting into the transport chair we utilized at home for getting around when he is super tired. He took a spill and couldn't be caught, he hit his head on the coffee table on the way down. No blood, no loss of consciousness no concussion. Did get a trip to the ER though.
Prior to the spill, I had been looking into extended care facilities to help get some strength built back up. This fall made the process go a bit faster than anticipated. After the fall, Steve was not able to get his right leg to cooperate with him and do what he wanted it to do, this coupled with the left side weakness, made coming home impossible. We were already struggling to keep him safe and cared for with one person.
As you know, Steve is "a big guy" this is per Dr. Howard so I can say it. Some of the meds increase his appetite quite a bit and Dr. Howard has been telling Steve he doesn't like to see skinny cancer patients so, that coupled with my cooking hobby, lets just say, Dr. Howard is right.
Long story short, Steve was admitted to a skilled nursing facility this afternoon. They will be working on rehab to increase his strength. I don't know how long he will be there or what the next step is. I will do my very best to update the blog at least weekly.
We don't go back to Madison until June for an MRI to see if the radiation was effective or not. Also, at that time, the MRI may or may not be accurate due to the amount of radiation we have thrown at Steve's brain. At this time, we are just taking what we have knowing full well the tumor will come back again at some point. Thanks in advance for all of the prayers and support that all of you continue to send our way. Words cannot describe how much you all mean to us.

As you know, only one way to close this out...

Peace out!

I’m Back!

10/9/2010

Sor ry for the long delay in my posts. 2010 has been a bit crazy. What I thought I would do today is have a catchup day. For you new followers I will give the readers digest/speed racer condensed version of my Cancer Journey. If you want the full story, please read my past posts from the beginning, which I encourage. Here is the quick chronological story:
12/27/2007 – You have an inner ear infection…ooops I mean Brain Tumor
1/29/2007 – Dr. Crute removes Tennis ball from my right temporal lobe in a quick 12 hour surgery. Friends and familysit in uncomfortable chairs in the waiting room and Lyle saves the day with Jimmy Johns. When pathology comes back we find out that I have a Glioblastoma multiforme IV,One asshole resident gives me 6-18 months and I said “wanna bet” and 34 months later I write to you today.
Q1 2008 – I recover quickly from the surgery and start a course of radiation 6 weeks 5x per week. I also start a cclinical trial of Chemo(Temodar)
March 2008 – the night I will never forget. After completing the first course of radiation, my buddy Marky – who comes in from Phoenix. Throws me an amazing surprise party see the post “a night to remember a night I will never forget to see how amazing. My keyboard is still dry at this point and if I write too much more about it, I will cry all over it.  Thanks again to everyone who came from far and near.
10/15/2009
After several clear MRIs, the Tumor comes back. Dr. Crute again performs a tumor resection. This time I had a little stroke during the surgery and spend2 weeks at inpatient rehab doing physical therapy, Occupational Therapy, and speech therapy along with 6-8 weeks of outpatient therapy.
11/2009 I start Avastin treatment before Thanksgiving evey two weeks.
3/29/2010
Its back again, but this time we do a non-invasive Stereotactic radiosurgery to NUKE the tumor. That works wonderfully and I get a clear MRI in May. Fast forward to 10/4/2010 – New MRI, get the results on 10/4
**********Current Day
MRI results Day – Its Back again. This time in 3 or 4 pieces. They cannot treat with Chemo or radiosurgery or crainiotomy. However, DEM SMART Doctors strike again. My Radiation oncologist, Dr. Roberts at UW, invented a new delivery method for radiation to allow for retreatment delivery of Radiation and its called Pulsed reduced dose rate Radiotherapy. It is the same dose delivered over longer period of time. I will begin this 10/12 and continue every weekday for 27 days.
Well folks, that brings us up to current day. There has been a lot of other things going on in the past few months, but I will save that for my next post that I will soon. The Fight goes on, and as always, I will never give up. Thanks for allowing me to express myself.

Good - Great - Exceptional, and SPECTACULAR

Well, I have been having a pretty great week so far. Team Talbott showed up in force for the ABTA 5K at Soldier Field on Saturday. We raised over $5500 as a team. Thank you to everyone that donated and participated. It means more to me than I can express in words. However, today was the day for my first MRI since I had the Stereotactic Radiosurgery in March. As always, my nerves were on edge and sleep was difficult to get last night.
Here is where the GREAT comes into play. I had the MRI and proceeded to the lab for blood tests and then to see doc #1 for the day... Dr. Mehta (Radiation oncologist extraordinare) he took a look at the MRI images and came in and informed us that they looked GOOD! That alone made my day...but wait it gets better. After Mehta, we went to see Dr. Ian Robins (NeuroOncologist extraordinare)we went from the waiting room to the treatment room and through the standard routine...I lost Three Pounds! Woo Hoo only 30 more to go. So we are waiting for Ian to come into the treatment room. And waiting, and waiting. Kim and I already know the MRI is good, but Ian is starting to make us nervous. He comes in and apologies for being late, but he was studying the MRI, and studying. The results? The tumor aka lesion is GONE. Totally regressed. Exceptional right? NO. Apparently there is a clinical correlation between my being on Avastin treatment (ie Chemo) and having Stereotactic Radiosurgery. The Avastin works to clean out necrosis and assists in the nuclear anhilation of the tumor! So I asked the stupid question...This is good right? He says No, This is Spectacular, and amazing. He thinks this will be the protocol for this procedure in the future! Having that crazy smart doc of mine saying the results are spectacular is one for the record books. Usually, he is real cautious on the good news, but NOT TODAY!!

So if you are following along, GOOD=clean MRI, Great=Tumor regression Exceptional = Cancer docs at a loss for words, and SPECTACULAR = Dr. Robins saying the lesion is gone and lets increase space between MRIs from every 8 weeks to every 10 weeks.

LIFE is good!

Thank you everyone for the continued prayers! They result in SPECTACULAR things.:)

If it is not to much to ask, please keep my Father in your prayers as well. He is battling inoperable liver cancer. He is fighting like the trooper and old Farm Boy that he is, but I know the power and value of your Prayers.

Thank you all!

Peace Out!

ABTA

Saturday is the ABTA Path to Progress 5K at Soldier Field in Chicago. This is an event that raises money for brain tumor research. I did this event last year and it proved to be an emotional but uplifting event. I have been looking forward to this event all year. THis year we created "Team Talbott" and have raised over $3600 for brain tumor research!! Most importantly I have a team of friends and supporters joining me in the walk. In case you haven't noticed in my posts over the last 2+ years, I have some absolutely amazing friends. Bringing them together for this cause is breathtaking! When my hope is challenged, as it has been over the past month or so due to the challenges in my father's Health, I always think of my support group and what they mean to me. Within minutes, my spirits are lifted! I will post pictures and thoughts after the event this weekend! Go Team Talbott! THank you for all you do.

Peace out!

Peace Out!

A Smile to end your day

I went to Madison today for treatment. My buddy Lyle drove me. Thanks Lyle.

My day started outstanding. After getting to Lyle's house for the ride North, I not only got a refill on the coffee, but I got a big hug from his gorgeous 3 year old daughter AVA! Made me smile right from the start.

We continued on our way and had a great time catching up (except for the time I napped) :).

After I got home and finished up work for the day, I checked my email and got this from Lyle:

When I got home today, Ava asked me “where’s Steve?”. I told her you went home. She then went crying to Laura and said “mommy, Steve went home!!”.

Just wanted to share that…

Made my whole day! and to steal Lyle's line.... I Just wanted to share that! :)


For Little Miss Ava,

Peace Out!

It's Baaaack Redux

So last Wednesday , I had my MRI check-up and that damn tumor is back. That is the bad news. the good news is that we are going to treat it with a non- invasive "Stereotactic Radiosurgery tomorrow Monday. This is an outpatient procedure using radiation to blast the tumor cells from hundreds of different angles with surgical accuracy without a cut.

So the process goes like this
1. Arrive at UW Cancer CLinic at 6am Monday 3/29..
2. get a "frame" placed on my head. 4 pins that hold it break the skin. I will wear this frame all day. Apparently this is the most painful part. they will give me a local anesthetic and valium (so I got that going for me. :)
3. with the frame on, I will get a ct scan. Dem smart docs will then go into a planning session to plan the surgery (think Really High level physics)
4. once the plan is done, they will take me into the Linear Accelerator (radiation machine)and I will receive the radiation blast. We won't know exactly how long the radiation will take until the planning is done, but 30-45 min is common. Once the surgery is done, they take off the frame and send me home! The Radiation doesn't hurt, it is about as painful as an Xray. I will be really fatigued for a couple days and have potentially have some eye puffiness late next week, but that's it. I will have a follow up MRI in a month which will hopefully show NO tumor growth and hopefully dead tumor. I go right back to my chemo schedule of every other Wednesday

So the tumor is back, which is not a huge surprise as we have always known that this thing will keep coming back. I am happy that my medical team is able to treat this with a noninvasive procedure. It is what it is and I will continue to fight this with everythng that I have!

The fight brngs me to the real reason for this post. When people find out that I am fighting Brain Cancer, they inevitably ask me how I can stay positive and smile. My answer is usually, it is what it is. Obviously, my family gives me strength as does my faith.

When I was freshman in college at Iowa State (GO CYCLONES!) I had periods of time where the life adjustment was difficult on me. I had a friend at the time who recognized what I was going through and gave me something that I still have to this day. It is a poem by an unknown author. For the past 20+ years, whenever I ran into a situation that I may have briefly considered giving up, I pull out this poem and reread it. I wanted to share it with you today. I hope you enjoy.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes wll;
Whe the road you're trudginig seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and debts are high;
And you want to smile, but have to sigh;.
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are;
t may be near when it seems afar.
So,stick to the fight when you're hardest hit-
It's when things go wrong that you must not quit.


Its a simple Poem that has helped me more times than I can count.

Never Never Quit!
Thank You SMITH Kinney!- my brother PHi Delt (My fraternity Phi Delta Theta) who Originally shared this with me in Late 1987.


Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

Peace Out!

Seasons Changing, Attitude improving

I apologize for not writing these past couple months, but I have been focusing my energies on re-engaging in our business. Jeff and I are working with a Marketing Group to help us rebrand our company. We are incredibly fortunate in that our business is doing well and we are actually hiring new employees and plan to bring on a couple more in addition to our onsite contract staff. Jeff has been fantastic growing our business while I was out.The weather in Northern Illinois is beginning to change and Spring is starting to show. I am excited for the weather improvement mainly because I have spent the Winter gaining back all of the weight I lost in the hospital last Fall. the change in the weather is finally allowing me to g et outside and begin biking again which I hope will help to slim my fat ass down.:) the first week of April, I have a conference in Vegas! Woo Hoo!, and Kim is going to Join me. It works out that school is out that week and she is in need of some rest and relaxation in the sun.
So the latest Health update is that the Avastin (Chemo) that I receive every other Wed at UW seems to be doing its job, my next MRI is March 24th. Overall, I have been feeling good other than the daily fight with allergies, which is normal with the change of seasons.

MAY 22, 2010 I will be walking in the American Brain Tumor Association Path To Progress 5K at Soldier Field in Chicago for Brain Tumor research. My great friend Mark Patrick is helping me this year. We have set up Team Talbott, and would love you to join us either by walking with us, or with your donation Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated and will go to a great cause! Check out the link and Thank You in advance

http://hope.abta.org/goto/Steven_Talbott


Peace out!!