Readings

Clearly I am in the more you know the better off you are camp. Anyone going through a similar (even dissimilar) situation, my advice is to gather as much technical information you can understand. This is particularly important in regard to diagnoses and treatments. The one caveat is the statistics. What gets reported are averages. These averages include people with very similar situations to you but also people who are at the extremes. For example the prognosis for glilalblastoma multiforme IV is not promising but those averages include people with multiple tumors in very critical brain locations and people who may have had surgery and the surgery did not result in a complete removal of the tumor. So my bottom line is to remember each case is individual and the statistics apply to the entire sample of people being evaluated, not an individual.
Given my background in research methodology and statistics, it was very easy for me to put those numbers in the right perspective. What I found more troubling were books I got that recounted an individual's battle. When you see them talking about their personal struggles and how they, individually, stacked up against the statistics. Probably the worst (psychologically) day I had was after reading one of those books.
The other thing that bothered me about those “individual battle” descriptions is that the battle is very different for each person. One book I read was a biography of Lance Armstrong’s cancer battle. Certainly that was remarkable. And you can’t help but admire what he went through, just to survive. Reading about that struggle, at time I felt I wasn’t working hard enough. But his cancer is very different and his treatment is very different. The internal peace I came to was realizing that given my situation, I am fighting as hard as he or anyone dealing with toxic chemo is.

The book I found most helpful was Jerome Groopman (2005). The Anatomy of Hope.
Unlike most other books that deal with hope, this is not spiritual,religious. It deals with hope based on science, medicine but certainly drawing upon what we have within our psychological make up that allows us to do so. Thanks to Mary Avarakatos for the gift of that book.

For Glialblastomas, most of the information is available through Google search. Not too many scholarly articles are available (or I haven’t found them)

Probably the best book on brain tumors that I came across was: Peter Black (2006) Living With a Brain Tumor. This is especially informative starting with symptoms.


As far as reading for enjoyment, I am almost done with Philip Roth’s Exit Ghost. New music I’ve been enjoying The Robert Plant/Allison Kraus CD and the new Levon Helm CD. I also got a compilation CD from Danielle which introduced me to some new things including Brian Jonestown Massacre.

Given I am back teaching in two weeks, it’s time to start pulling that material together

Gary