George Plym...   The  Ultimate   BRAIN       TUMOR Survivor!

I

            It all started in 1967. I like to think that I was a typical boy. I enjoyed fishing, hiking, and hunting. But my favorite of all, was baseball. As a matter of fact, it was on a baseball field when my journey started. A journey that took me to a place that no one should go to.

 

 I remember it was a hot, muggy, typical Midwest summer evening, and I was playing baseball for the Spring Valley Little League All-Star team. Early in the game, a routine pop-up fly ball came to me. I was somewhat startled. As I looked up into the soft, fading light, there were two baseballs coming down to me! I missed the ball. In the next inning, a ground ball game to me, and again, I saw two baseballs coming to me on the ground. Again, I missed the ball.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Something was drastically wrong. The double vision that had appeared that night was just the beginning of a lifetime nightmare. The next day, I was taken to the doctor. It didn't take him too long to figure out that the double vision was caused by pressure building up in the optic nerve. The tremendous headaches and nausea were a clue also. The doctor went out in the hall to speak to my parents. Even though I was having vision problems, there was nothing wrong with my ears. I heard the doctor tell my parents,

 

                                                "I'm sorry, but your son has a brain tumor."

 

Tumor #1 1967

 

     The tumor was removed through the skilled hands of Dr. Elwood . (Methodist Medical Center, Peoria, Ill) To kill any stray cells from the tumor, cobalt beam radiation bombarded my brain. The pathologist said that the tumor was an astrocytoma the size of an orange. It was then when we were told that I had a year, maybe two years to live. That was over 43 years ago! I'll call it number one, and that was in 1967. it was diagnosed as an astrocytoma. The second one in1987,it was diagnosed as an oligodendroglioma. On the third one which was in 1983, the pathologist found astrocytes oligocytes so now we just call it a oligoastrocytoma. As the years went by,   the tumors became much more aggressive, going to a grade III)

 

  Going back to 1967, I still have vivid memories of that experience! Not bad memories, but not necessarily good ones either.  I was put in a men's ward mainly because there was no pediatric ward for neurological  patients at that time.  

 

     So here I was with 3 older men who were obviously in different stages of mental anguish. One older man, Gus, scared the hell out of me! And more than once!! There was no air conditioning in the rooms at that time, so all of the windows  were wide open, leaving only the screens. One night I heard some noise that woke me up. I could see Gus taking the screen completely out! He proceeded to stand in the open window frame as I frantically repeatedly pushed the call button. I called out to him, "Gus!.... Don't jump!!" Still in the window, he turned toward me and said, "I ain't jumpin' ... I just gotta piss!!" And he proceeded to piss out the window as the droplets hit the street eight floors lower! One night, Gus came to my bed with that crazy look in his eye and proceeded to pissed in my wastebasket. I was scared! The next day my parents put me in a private room. Poor old Gus was put in restraints! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tumor #2 1978

 

     10 years later, I was on my own. Left the nest as they say. My cousin, Don had moved to Miami after serving in the Navy. He called me up and said that is a pretty cool place and if I was thinking about moving, I should consider moving to Miami. So I did! I was working in a BMW dealership in South Miami when I started having some visual disturbances. So I went to a ophthalmologist to have it checked out. The doctor told me that there was a lot of pressure on the optic nerve what was probably caused by a brain tumor. He referred me to a neurosurgeon who confirmed our suspicions. Meanwhile, my high school girlfriend and I had planning to get married and had set the date when the tumor showed up again. We continued with the marriage plans, being married on a Saturday, honeymoon in Miami Saturday  and then checked out In the into the hospital. On Monday morning, I had surgery. I was really surprised that I wasn't in too much pain and actually went back to work in two weeks!

 

Tumor #3 1983

 

Tumor number three was fairly easy as well. The tumor was encapsulated or like a egg. According to my doctor, he said that he was able to remove the tumor without causing any damage to the good cells. Again, I was able to get back to work without any issues. I had also moved from Miami to Asheville, North Carolina. This was in 1978.

 

I was going to skip directly to number seven, mainly because numbers 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were pretty much the same. Then I realized that surgery number four was the one that really had an impact more than all of the other ones except maybe number seven. Number four was the one that made me realize that I am a fighter and one incident completely changed my life.  I think that it is important that you know what happened when I was diagnosed with number 4.

 

Tumor # 4 1988  

 

Another Death Sentence

 

     Life changing !! This is the part where I'm supposed to die...again!  =-O

 

The year was 1988. I had a seizure in the middle of the night. A bad one. Course, there are no good ones. I was taken by ambulance. After a CT, a diagnosis was getting familiar. I had another recurrence. The next day, I went to neurosurgeon who did number three, Dr.VanBlaricom. He said that he was sorry that I had another recurrence and wished that he could help but he no longer did neurosurgery. He was in the process of retiring. I asked if he would recommend a neurosurgeon. One that was young because I was going to hang around for a long time and I needed a doctor that could get old with me. He laughed and did recommend a young doctor who was supposedly a real hot shot neurosurgeon. I told him to set me up with this guy and he did.

 

 

Within a few days, my wife at the time (that is a different chapter) Lori,  and I were sitting in the examination room when my new doctor walked in. I will just call him Dr. L. There are a lot of other names I could call him, but I don't want to be rude....

 

Dr. L. came to be in a hurry. I used to think that all doctors were in a hurry. Basically, he said, "Mr. Plym, I have reviewed your scan and you definitely have a recurrence."

 

Well, it really didn't surprise me. Not anymore. So naturally, I asked Dr. L. would he be doing the surgery or what was the plan? This is the part that puts chills all over my body and a sick feeling in my stomach. Even now as I pass this on to you.

 

     He said, "I'm sorry Mr. Plym, there is nothing else that can be done."

 

I asked him, "What do you mean?"

 

He said, "You have had three surgeries are ready. I don't think that you would make it through another one. And if you did, you would probably be paralyzed, blind or have some major deficits. I think that you should just put your affairs together because you probably won't be around much longer."

 

I was stunned. I couldn't believe what he is saying. He was telling me to give up!

 

I asked him, "Surely there has to be something that could be done, I'm just over 30 years old. I have a life in front of me."

 

He replied, "Sorry Mr. Plym. There's nothing that we can do for you."

 

"But what about some type of experimental treatment. I would do that."

 

Again, he, "No. Nothing."

 

I was getting exasperated. "How about radiation? Maybe radiation could slow down or stop it."

 

He became agitated and said, "Look Mr. Plym. I told you there is nothing that we can do. I'm sorry, but I have other patients waiting on me. I will close the door behind me and when you get done crying you can leave." And he left..

 

So Lori (my wife at the time) and I hugged and cried for a little bit. I finally told her that I am not going to take that for an answer. I told her to go home and I would call her back later.

 

In the daze, a walked across Biltmore Avenue to the hospital. I don't know why, but I had a real strong urge to do that. That urge was probably God showing me the way to go. I walked into the hospital and grab the first guy that had a white coat on. I can't remember his name, but I am eternally grateful for his help. 

 

Maybe this guy was an angel sent from God...

 

Holding onto his arm, I said, "you know anything about radiation and brain tumors?"

 

He replied, "Why yes, I know a lot about radiation. But at this hospital, we don't treat brain tumors with radiation. Although, I did my residency when I was at Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University. They are doing radiation- brain tumor treatment. I will give you the contact number and what doctor you should see."

 

I thought to myself, all right! Now we are getting somewhere. There is still hope!

 

This within two days, I was in the Radiation Department at Wake Forest University at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem. I talked to the head of the department whom I cannot remember his name either. I showed him the scans and he was very optimistic. He explained how a small hole would be drilled in my head with the guidance of a neurosurgeon. Then the radiologist would insert a catheter to the tumor and radioactive material would be put directly to the tumor via the catheter. He said that I would be in a room all by myself for three days and then the catheter would the removed and the neurosurgeon will close up.

 

It sounded promising but I had questions for him. The first one was if the tumor came back, can the same procedure used again? He said that it was a one-time shot. The second question was can I talk to the neurosurgeon about this procedure. He told me to hang on for a little bit while he checked. Within a few minutes, he came back and said that a Dr. Branch would see me .... in an hour!! I couldn't believe it. Everything kept working out in my favor!

 

I heard my name called in Neurology Department and I was led into a nice office. Not an examination room, but a small office where I met Dr. Branch for the first time. I had heard that he was young and fresh out of the Bowman Gray School of Medicine. I liked him immediately when we shook hands.

 

He said to me, "I understand you want to know a little bit more about this procedure. But actually, I am a neurosurgeon and don't get too much into the radiation part. I just drill the holes in close up. Why do you want  radiation?

 

I explained to him, "I was told by Dr. L. that I could not have anymore surgery." Dr. Branch asked why. I told he that I was told by Dr. L. that I would probably be paralyzed, blind or have some major deficits.

 

Quickly, Dr. Branch said, "Yeah, and you can get hit by a truck walking across the street too! I think that surgery is the way to go"

 

The more I heard, the more I liked Dr. Branch! I had to ask him, "Out of all of the brain tumors that he had resected, how did mine match up. Easy? Hard? In the middle? He looked me straight in the eye as he leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head and said,

 

"A piece of cake."

 

I got excited and said, "Okay!! You're my man! When do you want to do it?

 

"How about Monday?"

 

I said, "I'll be there. Set it up!"

 

Dr. Branch did surgery on Monday and I was home on Saturday watching football on TV! Little did I know at the time that Dr. Branch would go on to do numbers 5, 6, and 7!

 

 

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Tumor #5 1992

 

I was feeling well will open that all of this brain tumor stuff was over. I had met a wonderful woman, Diane, at my church. I enjoyed helping her with the youth group as she was on staff at the church. We started dating and I really enjoyed her company. A routine MRI wasn't very routine at all. It detected another recurrence. Despite my diagnosis of another brain tumor, Diane and I got married! Again, I was married on Saturday, checked into the hospital on Sunday and had surgery on Monday. I was back home the next week with a new bride!

 

They thew my bone flap away!

 

     Number five has a new twist to it. Because of the bone flap has been in and out so many different times, it didn't fit anymore. Due to the surgery and radiation, the bone flap would not heal and cause more movement and pain Dr. Branch decided to just remove it completely. It looked pretty weird not having The bone flap. It looked like a crevice that you could actually put your fist in it. I have to admit though. I didn't have any pain like I had in the past. But it was still pretty weird looking. I Told Dr. Branch at the time that if we ever had to do this again, I wanted a prosthesis bone flap, mainly for protection. He promised that he would.

 

 

Tumor #6 1995

 

The updated my head to a titanium mesh...

 

     The sixth tumor went fairly well. No complications that I remember. Although I did have a major issue. My first wife, Lori couldn't take it anymore. She chose to get a divorce. This is pretty common among brain tumor survivors. The divorce rate is much higher than non-tumor couples. We had other issues as well, but I feel that the biggest issue was the tumors and the pressure of marriage.

 

     Dr. Branch made good on his promise that he would put something in place of the bone flap that he took out on number five. Installed a titanium mesh screen to give me some protection in case I was bumped or had a accident. As you probably know, you can still have an MRI with titanium.Glad we did that because later on, I was hit by a baseball when I was coaching baseball at the middle school. Up to this point, I still have been doing well. Driving, no major side effects or deficits. I have said it before and I will say it again that it is unbelievable what the body can handle!

 

By this time, this is what my brain looked like: