My journey started 10 years ago with a seizure that revealed a brain tumor, more specifically a mixed oligoastrocytoma grade 2 and 3. This journey is divided in never ending phases, where everything is unexpected and unplanned: Month 1 - Desperation: Without a clue about what I was dealing with, between hearing the words brain tumor and uncurable I thought I had days to live, with no one who has been through this journey to talk to. Month 2 - Acceptance: Time to figure out what to do about it. Meeting doctors, hearing opinions, evaluating options, and picking a treatment path. Months 3-4 ..read more

  Year 5, 1st half - Another surgery, radiation, vacation and a job change – As I prepared for my radiation treatment my doctor uncovered another cancerous tissue during a pre-operative MRI, leading me into another surgery (EEA – Endonasal Endoscopic Approach) to biopsy the new cancerous tissue. With that we found I also had Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) on my occipital bone, something radiation would easily take care of. As I prepared for proton radiation treatment in Philadelphia, after 6 cycles of PCV in Pittsburgh, through which I worked - computer on lap and needle in vein - al ..read more

I am thrilled to share that after nearly 27 months from when I discovered my glioma my treatment is over! Other than the periodical MRIs to monitor recurrence, which I hope and pray never happens, I am back to life without glioma. An experience like this changes your life and of your loved ones forever, but believe it or not it can be for the better. You will grow spiritually and will appreciate yours and your brothers' and sisters' lives at a higher level. I was incredibly fortunate and blessed for my treatment, it was a resounding success. Starting with the ..read more

What a journey! Today is my 2nd glioma birthday, exactly 2 years and one day after I had a seizure that led me to my glioma. While a nightmare at first I still believe that this has been a blessing, I have been living a more purposeful life and have invested every minute of it into something valuable and it still feels like I should invest a lot more time particulalry into friends and family. Life is always too short when you live well and mine just doesn's stop getting shorter, I still hope to live until I am 100 and I am loving all the scientific contests that revolve around extend ..read more

This was an exhilarating but phenomenal week! Weather changed and I had a terrible headache, one that made me barely sleep on Sunday. I have never been the type that complains about headaches, for me to complain about pain it needs to be hair pulling and this was the case. To make things worse Brazilian basketball star Oscar Schmidt, who was diagnosed with a grade 3 oligoastrocytoma two months before me, was all over the news last month as his glioma recurred. It made me wonder if this was my time too and I've never been so anxious before an MRI. I had my MRI on Monday at 10PM and as always I ..read more

It has been a while since I last wrote about my glioma, I have suddenly felt an urge to share what I have learned so far. Nearly 2 years after being diagnosed I was discussing with my "twin-brother", the fellow Brazilian operated one day before me at Montpelier, what has changed since our surgery. I now feel prepared to share the key lessons from the incredible experience of feeling mortal and I want to share with those with and without glioma what I have learned so far. Here are my key take-aways: - Death is a great equalizer and it shows the true value of life: from the moment ..read more

Just had an incredible weekend, 3 days celebrating my 10-Year graduation from business school with great friends, most of which I have not seen in a long time. I was invited with a few alumni to speak at a panel and share insights with students about how to prepare for the future, from job-hunting to networking and how to better use their time at school. Interestingly we all had wildly different words of wisdom to share, and in some cases diametrically opposite opinions. After thinking of what happened I concluded that the secrets for a student's career do not exist,&n ..read more

Yesterday I received the best news since my post MRI with perfusion images were evaluated. After finding out that no apparent tumor growth was evident on my MRI from December 28th I stayed for the first time three months without an MRI, changing the frequency at which I check myself out. The results are in and no tumor growth was apparent, same images as my post-surgery MRI from January 2012. Given my tolerance to chemo and the apparent lack of side effects from a prolonged use of Temodar I am about to begin another 6 cycles of chemo to play it safe, but I hope I am taking it fo ..read more

Yesterday I visited my onchologist and received one great news after another. He shared that a number of patients are seeing similar recoveries to mine, temozolamide seems to work wonders around gliomas and progresively more patients are cured with little side effects for some lucky people like me - no hair loss, no blood changes and no nausea (except for when I felt adventurous and tried chemo without anti-nausea medication). We decided to extend my chemo cycles for another 6 months in case I still have tumor cells that are not visible in the MRIs, which I now have every 3 months ..read more

After a long year of chemo I have good news to share! I have completed and reviewed my MRI with spectroscopy and perfusion and my tumor has officially disappeared from the MRI, enough for me to move to a quarterly MRI schedule. In any case my Tumor Board (that's right, when you have a neuro-surgeon and an onchologist treating you you get to call your doctors a Tumor Board!) has decided that I should continue with my chemo cycles. I am getting too comfortable with my health and keep postponing my onchologist visit but since I am not having any side effects whatsoever under chemo we are ex ..read more