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Name: Mark Olsztyn
Date: Sunday, July 02, 2000 8:32 PM
Diagnosis: Oligodendro Astrocytoma IV
Email: mark.olsztyn@gmail.com |
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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; 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. |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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.
Mark |
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8th UPDATE:
March 18, 2007
I am fast approaching my tenth year without cancer. When I consider that I barely made it past year six when I
had the recurrence from which I have been recovering these past ten, I realize what a milestone awaits this extraordinary
span of wellbeing and good fortune. And yet, I know that the fight is not over. Despite the prognostications we've
all heard almost every week that cancer has finally been cured or that the vaccine has been discovered, it might
never be over for as long as I draw breath. Knowing this has not diminished the significance of the day for me
or my accomplishment. To survive ten years without a recurrence was my goal. On April 7 of this glorious year I will touch down. My most vulnerable desire will become fulfilled.
It will be a Saturday that marks my anniversary, a day preordained for celebration with family. How perfect. How
roseate. How ordinary, just like any other Saturday. As monumental an event as it is to me I have to accept that
it will pass without festivity or even a comment from those closest to me. It might have been different if only…
(I don't know how to complete this thought.)
I have been blessed and I consider
myself extremely lucky to be alive but not everything in my life is as I would like it to be. My wife, my sole partner for over half my life, wants
to go her own way now. Our two children, mere infants ten years ago, have grown into two distinct adolescents with
their own talents and tendencies. They have demonstrated their concern about our decision to separate but have
not displayed anything like opposition to the idea.
Looking back, it is clear that
the fissure lines of our relationship were the direct result of my illness. It would be impossible for me to measure the magnitude of shock Belinda felt at seeing
me, her partner, a once perfectly healthy 26 year-old man, suddenly writhing in the throes of a grand mal seizure
and then, just a few hours later, learning that this horrifying display was caused by a malignant brain tumor.
That was in 1991 and it was only the first one, a comfortably low-grade oligo. We were both much more resilient
back then. Our ability to withstand and recover from this difficulty would be tested over the next six years until
the day we both were informed that it had come back. By that time we were married and I was working full time.
Josephine, the first of our two children, prompted our hasty union in 1995 and our second, Nicolas, was not yet
two months old on that black Monday in March. It was St. Patrick's Day and the green shirt I wore to work on that
day would be one I would never want to see again. There was no luck for me on that day, only the nauseating, slow
realization that some things can't be outrun, no matter how far you've managed to distance yourself from the past.
Mark with his kids, Josephine
& Nicolas
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is a trite expression but it applies to my marriage and to
my life. Cancer killed my marriage
but it has made me stronger.
It has been my acquiescent companion, in many ways the center of my life. It has given me a purpose, to survive
and to tell anyone who will listen that it is weak. It can be defeated, routed or at least pinned down indefinitely
until something else comes along to escort it out of your body. I believe this statement applies to Poly MVA.
[By now, you should already know that "Poly" is a thoroughly non-invasive, completely non-toxic treatment
specifically formulated to fight cancer and that only we survivors are allowed to say that without fear of federal
prosecution.]
I have been using it every day since I returned from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston on a blustery April
afternoon in 1997, to my small apartment in Watertown where my two children, Desmond, our cat, my wife and a box
containing six bottles of Poly
MVA were waiting for me. I have
been scanned regularly and the news is always the same.
"Whatever it is that you're doing," say the doctors, "you should continue it." Most of them
really don't want to know what it is that I am doing. I've given up trying to tell them. My message is for you,
not for the doubting physicians with their cynicism and blind faith in pharmacology.
My message is for all of you
desperate and terrified cancer patients, my extended family. I was once just like you. Hear me! Do all you can
to support your immune system. That is the first step. Apply the Hippocratic Oath to yourself: First, do no harm. Your body knows how to eradicate this
disease, it just needs your help. You may need to radically alter your lifestyle to achieve this. If so, the benefit
will be two-fold. Use Poly MVA. Your body will take notice and try to return the favor.
Treat yourself with compassion and kindness, patience and acceptance. Be tender with your heart. Care. Release
your anger. Let go.
Ultimately, this is a journey you must take alone so be your own best friend along the way. Recovery is a long
journey so bring plenty of water. If ever you need encouraging, consider these words from Edward Abbey: "May
your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome and dangerous leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise
into and above the clouds."
Mark
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9th Upate:
April 7, 2010
Dear Friends Old and New,
Many of you have contacted me over the past few years to inquire how I'm doing. This has made me a little self-conscious
about how long it's been since I posted my wellness here. The long and short of it is that I am alive and well
and living my dreams in Sausalito, California.
This day marks 13 years since
my operation!
That's about 4,700 teaspoons
of Poly MVA by my calculations.
I had a routine scan some months ago-notice I'm not obsessing about the exact dates anymore?-and the results were
the same. No changes. All's Quiet on the Frontal West. That "trail" Mr. Abbey wrote about is still winding,
lonesome (no one can go with you on this journey) and somewhat dangerous, but I really have seen some amazing views
along the way.
In August of 2008 I left Germany after seven years of misdirection and moved to Sausalito to begin a new chapter
of my life, the happiest and most fulfilling one yet. My chief concern about my kids needing a father was the motivating
force behind my having stuck it out all those years, but they were proving to be less and less dependent upon me.
Meanwhile, my soon-to-be ex-wife was creating her own reasons to separate and we divorced amicably in 2006.
Freed now to go after the one that (almost) got away, I am living a more purposeful existence doing things that
I had put off for so many years. I have a loving companion in Marianna to hike and bike with through the beautiful
Marin headlands. I'm painting those hills, too.
I'm still in regular contact with my kids who, in my absence, have turned into beautiful teenagers in Germany.
Thanks to the wonders of Skype we are able to see and speak with each other across all those miles free of charge.
Toward the end of 2008 I had two petit-mal seizures within five weeks, the second one on Christmas Eve. My neurologist
assured me that these are not unusual or to be worried about.
2010 bodes well.
Mark with Marianna celebrating his 45th Birthday with a dozen
or so friends at the Sausalito Summer Jazz Series. July 10, 2009.
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