Crazy the way things work out

Radiation is complete 10/29/08! I wanted to thank everyone who participated in running me back and forth to the medical center. I appreciated the conversations and time you spent helping Nicola and I through this part of the treatment. As mentioned previously, it was much tougher than I had anticipated, emotionally draining with some pretty good side effects but all things considering, we managed it well!

Enough about that, I wanted to tell you a little more about our 5 year anniversary dinner of the NeuroCircle. The NeuroCircle is local adult brain tumor support group that I helped get started back in September 2003 when I first started work with Guilford (selling surgical brain cancer treatments). In fact, my very first appointment was with a wonderful neuro-oncologist (Pamela New, MD) working with Baylor/Methodist and the meeting was dedicated to laying the groundwork for a local support group. My new boss flew to Houston for the meeting and we were able to bring in a consultant from Minnesota who had a pretty nice template for support group programs. It didn’t take long to get the ball rolling and the next month the first meeting of the NeuroCircle was held right there at the faculty center: One doctor, one assistant, one patient, a spouse (care-giver) and a little food. This patient is our founding patient member and despite all those wonderful statistics I was happy to give him a big hug on 10/24/08 at our dinner. This couple is the cornerstone of our group and we are truly blessed and encouraged by them every year!

Going off on a little tangent (but that’s okay… I can do that and blame it on my missing brain parts)

I said before things happen for a reason and here are some things I’ve learned recently that I thought were kind of interesting:

I started to work for Guilford on September 9th, 2003
We started the NeuroCircle in September 2003.
My wreck (that start all this) occurred on September 9th, 2008
Following completion of radiation at MD Anderson, the patient is asked to ring a bell to mark this milestone in their treatment; this particular bell and poem were dedicated to MD Anderson and started in September 2003.

Crazy the way things work out.

Okay back to the NeuroCircle: Over the past five years the group has grown with new patients and many physicians and care-givers actively participating in our monthly meetings. For a couple of years we moved the meeting over to the Baylor annex building and did the best we could setting up in a cafeteria type room with loud vending machines. Through it all though, the group continued to grow and more and more patients were finding their way to the group and it wasn’t long before we had 20-30 participants each month. Today, it doesn’t surprise me to get a call letting me know that we might have upwards of 40 at the local meeting and to adjust the caterer. The bottom line is that we have been able to make a difference in patient’s lives and help them have a better understanding of this disease. We focus on care-givers and try to find speakers/educators who can help them with their day to day concerns. I’m very proud of this group and what Dr. New & Kimbra (the boss) have been able to accomplish; they are remarkable!

Our dinner on October 24th was amazing. We had over 100 participants: patients, care-givers, and physicians. We had wonderful support from the Department of Neurosurgery including the Chairman of the department, attending, and residents. The nursing staff (always wonderful) joined us for dinner and support as well as several from other supportive areas of the hospital. We were thrilled to have such a great turn out! The best part, however, was the entertainment. We were very proud to have Dr. James Rose (Methodist Neurosurgeon) and his Dixie Street Band provided first class jazz entertainment. This was their second year to honor our group and if you need a jazz band, I highly recommend them. It was a great event.

The best part came at the end as I was leaving. A patient that I hadn’t met before approached me to say goodbye. She was with her husband and wanted to introduce herself and let me know how much she appreciated our group. She said she didn’t think she would even still be here had it not been for the help of our support group. I was floored! She said this had helped them tremendously and had provided such a strong network of support that it got them through the really tough times. And it all made sense to me at that moment; this was exactly why we started this back in September 2003.