The Challenge of
Cancer…
We all eventually pass on
from life, mostly against our will… Cancer, today’s most complex disease, is
becoming increasingly common around the world. It is particularly difficult for
a person to manage these enormously challenging attacks, especially from those
inside of the skull where limited amounts of hard-bounded space provide little
or no room for “strangers” to take up residence and begin to grow…
The enigmaWebster
of a brain tumor has been an intensely intimate part of my life for several
years, making me today something of a successful (& perhaps very, very
lucky)…
Survivor!!
The ever-increasing rate of
cancers have a significant impact on almost everyone’s work at GE, so I tried
to lift a number of points from various locations around the web to share some
of my first-person-singular experiences. Allow me to apologize in advance, dear
reader, for some of the information below is far from pleasant reading…
perspective is everything, however, so I’m hoping that your viewpoint on life
and work will be enhanced by this visit! Regards, Don Shave
See my list of Definitions
for additional information
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The Smiley Baldy guy after Brain Surgery (May'98)
< Click on the picture to view Don's
diary…
Simple web searches for “brain tumor” pop up dozens of hits, both
interesting and important…here are some pages that may not pop up but that I
have found to be particularly relevant:
·
After
my May'98 diagnosis, meandering the web brought me to an inspiring tale about
Steve dePesa’s Journey &
Survival with the same disease as me, a grade-4 (the worst kind)
Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) brain cancer assault. I tried to contact Steve
but with no response… I learned that he passed away in July'98 after battling
for two years. This happened to Steve just a few months after the start of my journey.
·
It’s
not easy for those of us affected to read these stories, but it’s very much
worth the investment of your time to… visit John
Reay (surviving…updated Feb, 2006), Richard
Karpf (who passed away Oct’98), or Rebecca Libutti
(surviving), read part
of a diary by Mary Catherine Fish about her husband Tom's rapid death from
a GBM or, finally in this thought, touch a very personal connection, Karen Panelli, who sadly passed
away in February of 2003…
·
The
American Brain Tumor Association site is
filled with relevant facts, data and linkages as is Jim Kenzig’s Information Links For
Brain Tumors, a valuable list that he created after his daughter passed
away in 1997
On a personal front, I spent
some time in the spring of 2000 going back and forth trying to decide to write
a little about my experiences for GEMS' internal newsletter. The story ended up
as a news headline in June'00: "GEMS' PET
Equipment Assists In Employee Don Shave's Battle and Triumph Over A Brain Tumor"…I
also spent some more time in the fall of 2000 in front of a professional video
crew along with a couple of other GE folks (Sue Batten and Hal Rathburn) to
capture some personal perspectives on our personal cancer experiences for GEMS'
annual management kickoff review in Jan'01. Here's the final 6-minute video... GE 2001 Florida Opener viewable from inside GE
only…
Ongoing research is
brightening our lives on all fronts with cancer and related diseases. All we
need is a little more time with research like the Human Genome Project... just a little more time
and we'll all be able to look back on all of this much like Polio, or the Thalidomide fetal fiasco of the 60's…
Go, Science, GO!!
All
information communicated by this web site is by nature personal and will not
become part of our products.
Some
information is Proprietary to the General Electric Company and should not be
shared directly with GE Medical Systems Customers or any of our Competitors.
Page last updated: Friday,
July 28, 2006
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