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Name: Mark Olsztyn
Date: Sunday, July 02, 2000 8:32 PM
Diagnosis: Oligodendro Astrocytoma
IV
Email: markomecko@yahoo.com
UPDATES- July 2, 2000- September 7, 2000- January 9, 2001 - May
9, 2001 - October 3, 2001 - February 26, 2002 - May 15, 2004
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Saint Patrick's Day, 1997
Saint Patrick's Day, 1997. I received the news of my recurrent brain tumor with
dread and shock. It had come back after six years, almost to the day, and
this time it wasn't a low grade Oligodendro Astrocytoma but a GBM. I imagined what I had before was
just a mere Tyrannasaurus, now I had a head full
of Velociraptors. The doctors considered my case
a medical anomaly, but that was certainly no comfort. I was very
despondent. I felt hopeless;
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the GBM support group I attended (for the first and last
time in the basement of Boston's
Brigham and Women's Hospital) only magnified my sense of doom.
Although the left-frontal lobe tumor was operable and was resected
on April 7th using the latest surgical techniques, the prognosis remained
grim. Radiation followed by PCV Chemotherapy was the prescribed
post-operative therapy. When I asked the surgeon 'How long have I got to
live?' he could only answer "That depends on how you respond to the
therapy. We don't know. Right now, all we can do is throw everything at this
and hope for the best."
I was desperate to know that somebody had survived this nightmare. My father,
a doctor involved in alternative medicine, sent me my first bottle of
Poly-MVA only a week after my surgery. I started taking it immediately along
with the conventionally prescribed treatments recommended by my surgeon.
My first post-op, post-radiation scan was on July 25th and was clean! I
relocated from Boston to Phoenix to continue with part two: chemotherapy, and to be with my family for
The End, that I was sure was coming soon. In spite
of my clean scan and the fact that the doctors in Phoenix downgraded my
diagnosis to an Oligo 4/4 (less of an anomaly but
not much less of a threat), I was still given over to the idea that it was just
a matter of time before it came back to finish me off. The irony is that I
was so certain of my imminent death, that I decided
to stop paying taxes. You know that old saying about Death and Taxes being
the only sure things in life?
Now I am paying for my doubt in Poly-MVA, but I can't say I mind it at all! I
have had clean MRI scans to this day and I consider Poly-MVA - plus my belief
in God's great wisdom - to be the cornerstones of my recovery. I used to
associate St. Patrick's day with gloom, now I celebrate it as the beginning
of my lucky streak! A new chance at life.
2nd UPDATE:
September 7, 2000
I got the results back from last night's MRI. I am still clear and clean. My neurooncologist said I may now space the scan intervals
from three to four months! And to think I started out with a scan every two
months... Thank You God!!
The immobilizing fear that once gripped me is beginning to lose its hold on
my life. Someday, I hope to be free of it entirely. That goal is made
possible for me by just two things: my Higher Power and Poly-MVA. I know this
to be true.
Keeping The Faith Alive,
Mark Olsztyn
3rd UPDATE:
January 9, 2001
Hello Dear Friends and Family Members,
I want to inform everyone who is near and dear to me that I have had my 16th
clean scan. Yesterday confirmed what I could only hope was true,
there are no changes from the last one that was done last September.
In these cases there is literally no room for "improvement," all
you want is that things remain as they are, which for me means no signs of
any growth. The physician I spoke with was optimistic. I just need to keep
doing what I'm doing. To keep on keeping on.
Love to All
Marko
4th UPDATE:
May 9, 2001
To All Who Seek Hope
I am very happy to report that I have had my 17th clean scan since my
operation, in 1997, to remove a grade IV Oligodendroastrocytoma
of the left frontal lobe. My doctors are very encouraged by my status and I
believe that means that they think my prognosis is improved. I just can't get
them to actually say that. What matters most is that I think so. I feel very
confident that I will reach the ten year mark, a watershed set
for me by many gloom-and-doom allopathic statisticians who informed me that
only five to seven percent make it that far. I plan on going at least another
65 years. I want to see my great-grandchildren!
God Bless All of Us,
Marko
5th UPDATE:
October 3, 2001
Dear Friends and Family Members,
Yesterday I received news that my latest scan, my eighteenth since my
operation, was, once again, clean.
I am grateful but not surprised, so I feel more joyful than elated and
relieved. Somehow, this time I knew with nearly absolute certainty what the
results would be before I saw them for myself.
Over the past few months, with no real concerted effort on my part, I have
undergone a subtle but significant transformation that has given me real
peace of mind and spirit. I can't say for sure what the catalyst for it was, I only know that I am changed. whether
it lasts or not only time will tell, but I feel that I am on a clearly marked
path that is leading me to something good.
I would like to acknowledge all of you who have supported me in my struggle
with cancer either by praying for me or by wishing me well and thinking of me
fondly. It's all good, and I thank each one of you for your contribution to
my wellness.
God bless you all.
Mark
6th UPDATE
Scan Number 19 (February 26, 2002) was Clean (again).
It gives me enormous satisfaction to report that my last MRI, performed under
the full moon (it's a ritual that comforts me) in Phoenix, Arizona's Barrow's Neurological Institute, was unchanged. No
sign of any abnormal growth, just a hole in the familiar gray salmon steak
that is my brain when it is viewed on the lateral axis. That makes nineteen
now since my operation in April of 1997. It will soon be five years since my
diagnosis and I am as cancer-free as I can possibly be. I look forward to the
mid-way point and to sharing my progress with everyone concerned with it.
Each day is a gift that I am grateful for, each moment is a fugwalha. -
Mark
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7th UPDATE
May 15, 2004
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Mark and his family enjoying a visit
to Heidelberg Castle. May 15, 2004."
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My last scan was unchanged. So similar was it to the one before and, for
that matter, to the one before that and, well, all the scans since about
1998 that my doctor felt I am at the point where I can space them out to one
per year. Now, unless you happen to know this man, it is difficult to
describe the optimism in my prognosis that his decision conveys. He is,
after all, the Chief of Neurooncology and as such
doesn't often see cases
like mine which go from requiring a scan every two months to one per year
within the span of five years.
It was six years, almost to the day, between my first brain tumor in April
of 1991 and its recurrence as something considerably more
dire in April of
1997. Though, statistically, the odds are still against me I already know
that I will be tumor-free this April, six years from the date of my last
operation, when my wife and my two children and I will be walking on the
pebbly beaches of the Côte d'Azure celebrating
those three precious, God
given gifts: Life, Health and Family.
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