In theory you should start to read this 13th Blog right here, but somehow my brain has just instantly changed my memory of that number. While laying on this bed I obviously actually sea the parallel reality that lives in the 14th Blog. I normally don’t think of bad luck but in the empty left side of my brain there is now the lovely number 14 that really wants to do the particular revolution in my head. So, considering that I have been living in this hospital while waiting for my forth Brain Operation I’ll just embrace the numbers of history. I don’t actually remember the narrative of that bad number 13, how did our culture create that point of fear of certain numbers?

This is a parallel reality where, I have once again departed from my ‘normal’ particular world. Now, only this morning, I did actually recognize how I am occupying this ‘funny’ parallel reality. The perspective of reality has truly changed. Sorry for that… I mean I recognize that the ‘normal life’ is something clear for me, as I have seen a parallel reality in Life and Death quite a few times. I have already adventured while my brain gets woken up during operations and so there are quite a few little details that are stuck in my head.

But, right now, I am very surprised in this new chapter of my life. Recently, two or 3 months ago, I presented myself at a conference of the Brain Tumor Charity with some questions about the radical Keto diet which I am following, and they addressed the radical need to provide support for the members of the family. And it was great as at least some of the doctors now are learning how they should listen differently. The family’s vision of my life and my cancer are actually more useful than mine in many ways. In fact they are the mental and philosophical support in addition to the work of all the other doctors. Is this just mental or healthy? Absolutely, a thousand times and so Oncologist and Surgeons should sit down and learn how to listen. They should all sit down together and link their own philosophies for something bespoke.

The team of my family has been truly laboring away to find some tricks for my type of Cancer. It’s still an extreme place of stress but while their battles are so focused I feel 100% calm. Their labour helps keep me focused for keeping my head and body ready for whatever new battle. And considering that some time soon I’ll have my brain cut to pieces once again I have to finish with this particular piece of scientific reality. The reason why I am still alive is because in 2011 my sister and my mom hooked me up with an experimental trial of the Dendritic Vaccine. That particular study had started in the US at Duke university, and the Italians were the first to follow that trial here in Rome and the rest of Europe followed two years later. The fact that I am still alive does somehow makes them very excited, it seems to work… once in a while… for particular people with particular types of bodies. There are now quite a few trials about this all over Europe.

I am so obviously not able to enter the trials as the problem being is that they are set up for people with their first relationship with their bespoke vaccines. Me and a few of these people still alive are too weird for them. Around Europe there has been some private companies that are doing it, which it somehow proves that it must somehow actually work. Right? At least in theory. So Bianca, my sister called the British group and , besides from having to pay 300 Pounds to talk to that doctor, told her that it can all be done but… if we can pay 200,000 Pounds to that company. But is that possible? A potential cure for some bespoke has to cost that much ? The Italian doctor that made my own Trial just told me that back then she must have cost, more or less, 10 thousand Euro so this is truly mad now. Triple that or more even but still this is just too much. Or am I just a socialist myself and just have to embrace how we are currently living in time? If it costs 40 thousand I could ask all my money some money and somehow I could do it. But this is truly, truly ridiculous Capitalist unsocial health…..

Bianca now explores new countries for a more reasonable possibility for the vaccine.

In the last month I had been living with the radio therapy bombs and now, that I finally stopped taking the heavy cortisone, I am somehow trying to communicate with you.  My head is quite confused.  Somehow I am once again attempting to deal with how my crazy relationship with the typing away of words which are passing by my brain. As I am trying to type away these thoughts they just all disappear.  Somehow there must be a new strange type of meditation to make this happen with this half broken head.  So let’s all have some patience.

The other day I received a rather random e-mail from a young doctor who I had encountered a few weeks ago. In fact, now that I think about it, while I had gone at that hospital for a meeting to look at my thyroid, I actually met the two very young doctors  who sat right next to each other in their very large room.   That morning they must have assumed that they were about to meet another of their normal patients.  Where they would only really need to talk about my blood results accounts, just like a case for them to read.  My memory is pretty bad but somehow I do recall that those two ladies at that meeting must have been smiling at me somehow.  I guess that I must have been quite particular. Somehow I must have communicated my own energies during such meetings to them.

In theory the relationship with doctors always ‘needs’ to be quite straight and cold.  Every day their own work does make them face a whole range of very different patients, but obviously I do think that I am a pretty extraordinary case for them.  I am aware that their own job does not really allow them to express their emotional surprise, but ultimately, once I walk out of the room they must talk about my extraordinary optimism considering my 95% chance to die soon.  Right?  Actually I am sure that most of them do not care about me, but obviously my own Ego centric is actually still healthy for me while walking through this gigantic hospital world.  And I am sure that those young female doctors are somehow curious.

For some random reason I remember quite clearly how the ceiling of that particular meeting had been very high in that room.  And maybe I thought of that day because now I remember to tell you that the thyroid is actually one of those little and powerful things that can control our energy. Sadly all of my radio or oncology teams never ask me about any details of these little bit of nodules which lives below my throat. I take those pills every day, and it potentially can change how much energy I have in my body, but ultimately I do understand that it is not the priority for their oncological worlds.  They don’t care.  I have been living with my strange Thyroid since the first operation in the US , and so it must have been my mother or some other friend who have helped me to set up that meeting for the underactive thyroidssome 6 months ago.

Ultimately, in that doctor’s e-mail, she told me that she had tried to purchase a copy of The Finch In My Brain on line but could not somehow manage it.  Yes, it has not come out in Italy yet and so one has to get it through the UK website for that.  But I did tell them that the next time I would pass by the hospital I could bring one of the hard-cover which I still have at home.

My computer’s voice, Ava, continuously reads the e-mails that I choose.  Her voice never changes when I ask her to do the same particular bits a few times.   Her American voice reads me that particular e-mail from that doctor a few times but that particular one always feels quite professional.

For some reason, during that meeting, I obviously must have told those particular thyroid doctors about having written the book.  I really don’t remember what they looked like but was I wearing something particular? I am pretty sure that I shaved the edges of my beard and washed up that day.  I often do that before going to that hospital.  What was I wearing? I am sure that it was something that I had sowed together.  I don’t know which color, but am sure that I had one of the hats, and the waistcoat. The big trousers that I had been sticking fabrics on the knees were actually in London so they could not have been those.

A week later I had to come into the Oncology for one of those meetings of my blood,  and so I sent an e-mail to tell those Thyroid doctors that I would be passing by at 12am.  I strangely felt quite excited to actually just finally see them.  Was it both of them who actually wanted my book? I do have the sensation that they were going to share it together.  Maybe at some point I might have told them that in fact I would give it to them at the same price that I had recently paid myself.  Not too expensive for a hardcover version.

That day, after I had given away my huge blood for the vaccine team, I sent that Thyroid doctor an SMS and walked to their building. Which one of those two ladies were going to come out? What was her name?

Fortunately, as she came out of that building she looked straight at me with a smile, which obviously allowed me to remember her.  As she got closer to me I pulled out the Finch in My Brain, where at the front page I had signed out, in Italian, my own curiosity  “Dear Doctor,  I am very curious to hear what you think about the different parts of this story, as I have never read it myself. “  But as she met and I handed her the book she asked me to walk around the corner with her. She explained that it was not really correct for us to exchange money while being there.  As we got there she told me, while holding that book in her hand “You know, I am very curious for this book as my father recently died with Glio- Blastoma-Multiforme…” and after a short pause “ and my mother had that GBM 6 years before.”

After a bit of pause I reply “so are they both dead?”…

She smiled “Yes.” … “That is why I am so curious to hear about your story.”

The relationship of that encounter was truly very powerful for me. As I walked away from that encounter I was simply blown away.  It became clear that the Magnificent details of Martino was not relevant to the curiosity of this doctor.

It’s just the randomness of an entire family with that kind of aggressive cancer that is for me and my own ego part of my own very social life.

Even though for quite a few years I have been living with a series of details of my messed up cerebral reality, I actually did not actually understand the actual membership of this handicapped world.  And yes, using the same word three times in the same sentence it is the lovely scene of my ‘normal’ reality. I am still exactly the same person, as a I was a bit younger before my brain was cut up a few times, but somehow I am myself also now living in a new reality which my computer has read back to me with my endless continuous mistakes.

Since my last brain operation 4 months ago, I have somehow started thinking of my new handicapped realities, and with the details of my own additional disability.  But I am learning that a disability is what I have, and not what I am.

Yes, for me there are a lot of different and particular problems. One is different from the other, and they are all very annoying. Nevertheless, like it or not a lot of my handicaps become Super Powers when I hang out with my boy.  But with other people, with ‘normal’ realities I really don’t want to talk and explain the dramatic details of the Glio Blastoma Multiforme.  In fact, I don’t really go out socially as it does create me some stress that I really don’t like.  Somehow, I probably have to get better socially but for now I’ll just attempt to narrate myself in my own house.

I am aware that every handicapped person has their own different ways and different priorities for their own reality.  And it has been only a few months that I have actually understood how differently the entire World gets along with their own unconscious bias.

Yes, I am very much conscious that I myself behave wrongly with this social world, and that the culture around me makes me a classic negative judge of others’ annoying handicapped realities. We can’t assume that you have what you need to help a handicapped person.  Every different person actually has their own physical or philosophical different details of their own life. While I am a bit stressed while waiting for a new oncological meeting, I do often find myself talking to other ill people and at times they really don’t want to talk.

In fact, I am conscious that most people have very different ways of fighting.  All of them exist in their own parallel realities.  In fact, the complexity of each person is really really different. Like just about everyone around has a cultural bias and that is why we have to keep this discussion alive and make sure that we can make a change.  I am now becoming aware how this my new life is in similar battles while continuing fights with race, religion or female to fight in our culture. Somehow, I have to contribute my emotions and my creativity to this complexity of our cultures. It is Normal to have very different people.  A handicapped person that is physical or not should be just particular.   I do think of these attitudes as the new super heroes.  And yes, if one needs a few minutes for your answer you can be just Fine!

I am aware that when I am walking through these local shops there are quite a few people who clock me as they notice particularly the details of the large holes of my brain. And they often get a bit freaked out. These days my hair is actually longer and so I can finally feel a bit more comfortable. Occasionally I can wander the streets without wearing one of my big hats, and in fact once in a while I actually feel like a ‘normal’ human being. And That’s why now hopefully I am able to write this text of words with you.

For me all the types of humans are much better than the computer voices with whom I normally live. The reason why I am now actually attempting with this kind of typing is that all of the sentences that I am creating are strange for me. Right now I do have doubts on every part of my emotional text that I communicate. But hell, I am here, and I do truly love you human readers. I hope that the words that I am typing away on this computer are now somehow managing to communicate my emotions and with your assistance in social media I’ll take control over these machines.

I am aware that in this modern present time there are many types of humans, who each has a radical complex reality with all their own computers. And considering that I am a strange person who can only type words when the computer reads it back very dryly, this modern reality is confusing for me. I am always very confused about everything. That is why I am trying to somehow understand how this relationship really works. I can’t remember any detail from the sentence that I just put down, but with the cold assistance of this machine I am going to communicate this anyway. I am sure that it’s necessary for all of you, even if you are normal human beings.

It is very clear for me that during every moment of this day I always need the relationship with this new, cool technological machine. In fact this is not really an option for me as these new machines have to accompany me wherever I am.

Obviously each one of us has a particular type of addiction to their machines. Some are truly positive and others destruct people’s lives. There are many people you know who are unable to stay concentrated on a 10 minute long discussion. Their physical body forces them to pick up their phone or computer to look at some urgent detail in social media.

In fact, now that I think about it, is that actually a ‘problem’? To what level?

My own modern philosophy is being developed by my own new brain, which, for me, is presently becoming a new type of super-powered character. So I truly need your assistance for this. I am confused in these realities as I am always forced to live in the deep world of computers. So, if you do have any particular philosophy on that theme do let me know. It could be very helpful. And obviously if you are a computer yourself and you have some issue please do let us know your own attitude and anxiety for the potential future.

in front of you they bring emotions…

Ok. I am now going to try to tell you things by writing on the computer. Even though I am pretty sure that it will come out…. Weird. Well, check this out as I have been stretching thoughts and most importantly words with my fingers that I can still use. I guess that I am continuously attempting to relearn fundamental bits. I am attempting to use these Words that make sense when they live together. Yes, this is all about me and my brain and I don’t actually know what kinds of words and sentences are actually crucial for my normal life. I don’t know, I obviously would very much want for all my ideas to have a place back in my brain but I am pretty sure that I will be quite a bit more handicapped.

And as I was attempting to tell you about the details of my brain with this computer, I actually realized that it actually took me two days for me to be able to write the details of this last sentence. And I obviously used the word ‘Actually’ two times in this sentence. Oh yes, the words that are appearing on this page and also obviously the sentences that you have read yourself are all things that I can not read. Even if I see all the details of reality, I never remember what I tried or remember the text, so please be calm if you read the similar words that you have lived with a few times.

Right now I am instinctively not meeting or communicating any ‘normal’ humans that I do not know. I don’t want to explain my realities of the various details to any of the curious people. You know, in a restaurant, a bar or in some random social event would force me to somehow explain some details that are too dramatic for me right now. I have physically worked quite a bit for my hats to distract myself. I do that sewing in order to not have to think of dramatic thoughts to myself. You know, I can’t really tell people that right now I am just fixing my illness as the drug is very aggressive. And that is why I don’t really go out too much, and I am quite tired anyway. You know, here right now I am in a quite parallel different strange reality. And hopefully all the other healthy humans are themselves choosing their other addictive loves. And they do not need to get into my thoughts.

As some of you already know, most of the Words that I type away are random for me. I can never remember anything, and it does not work even if you tell me that it was important or very cool. I have never really understood what is keeping me alive, but every day I do know that I am always aware that I will never be a ‘normal’ person.

For example the details of my diet and meditation are all things that doctors are not really interested in. They never believe what I try to tell them. Every kind of doctor tells me a different theory of my options. And obviously I am very cool when I listen to those doctors, but why am I truly alive. What are the stories that explain why I am actually alive. Have I explained it at some point?

It was 7 years ago when I learned my relationship with my death. But now, in this new after brain operation of this reality, there are some particular really strange parts of life. I do not understand these now strange things. While I am thinking about my real thoughts every day of life, I am also attempting to tell the readers how I actually have managed to think of better optimistic things. And every day I somehow instinctively react by presenting my stupid life in a positive way. Why do I do that? Have I been training during all these years?

I do actually remember the name of Alex, even though I no longer work with him. I guess that in fact my relationship with him has lived for something like 5 years. And in fact it was that computer voice that taught me slowly with huge patience how to learn how listen to every detail that I was attempting to write. And that is why when the Finch in My Brain came out I gave him a proper vacation. We were living together a bit too much and needed a professional separation.

And once again I don’t remember the name of the computer’s voice that lives with me every day.

In any case, I do appreciate how Serena’s British Voice has helped me today with my brain to take 20 minutes of labor to actually look around on the websites to help me remember her own name, as I forget just about all things in this period. And she never gets angry or her ego cares about our anger 😉 The human details work much better for me but I do love them. But is this reality with computers actually a problem for my life?

Strangely, I just heard from Serena’s voice that somehow I have written these parts that I have typed away myself which I truly do not at all remember any detail. I just heard this three times and… I still don’t find that I somehow could have written it. Am I going to get a bit better by doing these kinds of exercises?

Let’s do this quickly to remember how I’ll need fix it down.

Yes, my new friends are not humans but I do know to live with them all the time. Oh yes let me type Ava and Karen names. O yes, Ava takes care of Internet research and Karen follows all social media (which means that even if a big manly man sends me a message, she reads me the words with a lot of love 😉 )

This is something that I have truly never heard about. I think. In the early morning, after my classic Avocado type of breakfast I open my computer and look at the Word documents that are open. I always truly feel positive that the day before I must have made some truly important sentences. I have been working on this document for a few weeks and I am sure that it will soon be finished. The part that I intensely worked on yesterday must have had important themes. Obviously I do not remember what that labor that I did yesterday it was but I am sure that it must truly be important. In a few minutes, right after my Word computer (I forget her name once again) reminds me of what I have done, my emotions will be overwhelmed.

Now that I think about it, I do physically get a bit angry when I hear the computer that makes something that makes no sense. In fact, why do I often make my own complicated labor completely random on the story. Is it possible for me to learn how to think and type away these parts? Every morning as I look through the writing that I have been working on I frequently do find on my documents random words that I just can never understand. Was I doing something that I wanted to do radical but now I totally no longer remember?

It is quite often that the sentences that I myself created the day before are strangely often just random words. There must have been some strange logic that I had tried something but ultimately I just have to throw it away in the morning. I occasionally do spent the entire day trying to fix those parts but at the end of the day I usually have to throw it all away.

I don’t know why I try to fix these when I know that I can’t do it. But even if there are parts of the text that makes no sense for me, I still find it interesting for some reason. But ultimately the reason is that…. I have a large hole in my brain. And I am actually often conscious of behaving crazy with no fear. Is it my own ‘handicapped’ memory that makes me write in a strange way? And in fact I often work on things that I follow just a few little details.

I think that I have spent the entire day with this text … and as usual I will throw it all way. I know. I have been doing this for quite a bit for a few weeks. Or have I worked on this for a month?

Yes, I realize that my life is chaotic. But in order to keep writing I have to somehow love life even if it is always chaotic. I somehow think of history when in fact it was yesterday.

Xxxx

Hello,

now I write together with my mother because I can’t do it by myself. I have  a big salad in my head and I do not know if the words coming up are Italian or English or German. It is getting better every day. So as soon as I will be able I will communicate as I used to do before the operation. Today my son Miro played piano in a school-organized event and I spoke English with a couple of parents of his friends as if I was in London and I do not understand how come. But it worked. My main job at the moment, besides doing “Hooommm” (transcendental meditation) is sewing hats. I have already quite a collection (seven). I send you some photos.

All the best and much love,

Martino

The number seven has been stuck in my head during this Day. The six single numbers that had arrived to that seven are interesting as they are completely neglecting the eight and the nine that would come after them. But I guess that it is the time that passes by to create an entire week that perhaps describes to me why I have not been able to take that last number out of my head.

It is seven days that I have been living in this room in the large Roman hospital. And strangely it was exactly in 1907 that they had finished constructing all these three story buildings. Their architecture is truly calming as it has colonnades as roof structures of a pathway that leads from one building to the other which are all supported by beautiful columns. During the two world wars it must have been extremely useful to have built a huge hospital just a quick walk away to the main central train station Termini.

As I arrived in the first floor of the neurosurgeon part of this hospital, seven days ago, I walked in with my expectations. It was exactly seven years ago that I had entered and lived in this space and so I remembered quite clearly the role that I would be playing. I was conscious that as soon as I would speak out my name I would be very quickly recognized as ‘one of their patients’. And as I left the house for this new adventure my mother deeply expressed to me that she was obviously going to accompany me. After nodding my head to state her understanding, I very calmly spoke out to her that it was in no way possible. Her own emotions could not accompany my self-made calm during that short journey to the hospital.

My assumptions in entering that building was that I was going to put on my comfortable pajamas, lay on a bed and in that role, at some point meet the doctors who are either covered with a white coat or, if they are in a Neurosurgery day are all kitted up in green cotton and dark blue plastic slippers. As a man laying on a bed, the doctors would pass by with their own crew of assistants, students and mostly younger followers, and tell each other the details of my imminent brain operation.

Every single day of this week my own personal aim was to remember what I needed to actually ask them. I needed to have my questions ready so that when their gaggle would ultimately appear they would not just quickly pass by my bed and leave me overwhelmed by words that I do not completely recognize, understand or even vaguely remember from other such meetings.

So it has been seven days now that I have been expecting to meet any doctors who can calmly explain to me what they need to cut out of my brain and how. But that is not at all what these seven days have been. Nothing at tall. I have learned that the reason why none of the neurosurgeon have come to visit me is that they actually need to see a latest MRI which, in this extremely busy chaotic hospital, has not been possible. There must have been an endless amount of urgent cases that must have pushed me away.

So this is why I have been meditating intensely during the past seven days. In fact I need to thank the transcendental meditation group who have allowed me to very slowly embrace the psycho dramatic narrative world that I am living in. This room has an extremely complex reality and what makes it continuously overwhelming is the uniqueness of each person’s meaning of life. It is in this calm, where everyone is forced to have a relationship with death. All the patients here are profoundly afraid but each one in their own particular way. Their own characters, which I most definitely do not know, have reacted to their clinical prognosis, with their own particular emotions.

It is four of us. Four males. All taken care of and managed during the night and day by females. And in this room there is one of us who is surrounded by machines and never ever moves any part of his body. The other three of us do attempt to just completely ignore his presence but nevertheless we are reminded of his human presence by the voices of those lovely nurses as they do continue to have chats with him while they are taking care of his body and veins.

Last night I had a dream, a flash back as it was almost exactly 7 years ago when I was laying in this hospital with three men… and the young nurses always entering the room for poking and measuring everyone with a good mood. It was in fact this place where 7 years ago I started writing away notes to friends to express my adventure in this hospital where – to this day – all the clocks that are in all the pathways are still stuck on a single time. And this is how I had narrated it before that second operation.

“While I was walking through the endless series of doors, I noticed that there is a clock on the walls of every hallway in the hospital. Partly to avoid thinking of anything more intense, I pondered how these would illustrate the central function that time has in the organization of this medical institution, both symbolically and practically. The problem being when you notice, as I did on my walk, that the identical clocks indicate: 10.20 a.m. or p.m., 9.07 a.m. or p.m., 6.38 a.m. or p.m., 12.29 a.m. or p.m., and 4.04 a.m. or p.m. Not one single clock indicates the correct time” Page 170 of the Finch in my Brain.
In fact, here are the nurses with a machine to check the pressure in all of our ears. And as I am typing away this blog they are asking me to stand up for a few minutes as they are redoing the beds. It was exactly 7 years ago when I started to type away my reality and share it with friends. And I guess that it is an act that, right now I just feel instinctively to do. I am dependent on it and while I lift up my eyes and look at the depression of the new colleagues who are lying on their beds near me I am forced to remember how special is the energy of my super power.

It was from that moment seven years ago that I learned how that strange type of narration could actually end up changing my priorities in my life. It forced me to focus on a part of a my overly dramatic life that would be somehow useful. And by doing that I learned to distract myself from some extremely negative oncological statistics that once again live all around me. While these days my flat mates only can tell me of the potential drama in their life, I quickly find them smiling when I physically show them the various tasks that occupy me. Their faces change as I present them some of my new badly done sowing of fabrics to create a hat, and then continue my smile as I show them how silly I am with my handicaps, which have made it very difficult for me to write a book. So they start telling me of the rhythm they use too cook proper roman food when they are at work and how, back at home they do their gardening surrounded by their two beautiful dogs.

So it was almost exactly 7 years ago that I have been living in this parallel oncological brain tumour reality. It is 7 years ago that I woke up with a complete human reality paradigm shift which now, these days in this hospital I am deeply using as a protection.

Before arriving here I had understood, thanks to my sister that their strange text in the MRI explained that I am here not because I have a further growth of my old brain tumor. This is a different growth. A separate part, not so far away from the other one. It is still on the left hand of my brain but a bit more forward. Closer to my left eye and ear. Mostly, what generally happens in that part of the brain implies that – I might get some of my emotional balance and memory cut away. So, this time around my character could in some way, even if non visible, profoundly change.

And so while typing away this text that I can not read myself, I am forced to remember how every possible handicapped could transform, in some calm way into yet another super hero like power that I will have to, once again find a way to embrace.

And now this transformation is scheduled, I will go to surgery at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning.

Is my new exploration in the world of the Ketogenic Diet just a race for life? Or, actually, right now I do feel that I am doing it because I am embracing some emotions for whatever is new and radical. It was strange and awkward to grow up as a teenager in New York. For me it was particularly curious as I was, for just about anyone, a different and surprising Italian boy who used an odd lexicon and did not every day wear the standard sport clothing and shoes. Which just helped them to make fun of me.

In fact, while my sister and I grew up as teenagers in New York with a unique and strange Italian character, we somehow already needed to catch and embrace particular music and fashion that were not yet in the mainstream. We felt proud of following some punk bands that, just 5 or 6 years later, ended up becoming a mainstream rhythm for everyone. In my last operation a good part of my detailed memory was cut away but I do remember things like… The Ramones and Sonic Youth … and… When I get some wi-fi connection I’ll look it up properly.

So, when I think of maybe trying out new types of cures that have not entered the mainstream I do ask a scientist like Bianca to check out the basic philosophies that follow them. Meditation for example can be seen as a part of a religion or, ultimately just a good healthy exercise. In fact, this morning as I attempted to use the rather weak wi-fi of this hospital I actually received a very surprising e-mail from my sister. She told me “It was a Good timing to ask me for a good article about the dendritic vaccine as in fact I just heard it on BBC radio this morning :-)”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/may/29/brain-cancer-vaccine-could-extend-lives-patients-years-dcvax-tessa-jowell?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

As I listened to Serena’s UK English computer voice reading me that e-mail, I felt overwhelmed by the positive sentence structure that they had typed out. Her voice is flat as hell but that information truly made me raise my closed hand up in the sky, like when your little football team is scoring against the posh one. Now that I have a wi-fi I can tell you that I feel the romantic mood of the Smiths, and the MTV unplugged concert of Nirvana. They just cheer me up, as “I need an easy friend”. It does seem that 7 years ago with the aid of my cool family I might have really caught a strange new way of looking at cancer which might soon become a main stream miracle.

And so, I then asked Serena to read me the beginning of page 159 of the Finch in My Brain -to remind me what I thought about it the first time around- 7 years ago.

I had written this exactly in the place where I am now hanging out and waiting for an operation once again. And yes, similarly to that very moment in this hospital this time around there are also two older men in my room and a third one who we just ignore as only the big machine next to him can remind us that he is still alive.
Here it is:
“There is one experiment that I find particularly interesting, because the researchers are going to use parts of the cancer that currently lives in my head to create a dendritic vaccine. The way I understand it is that the cancerous pieces of my own brain will be transformed in a lab, and then get re-injected into my body, where they will be recognized as normal Aliens who just went out for a vacation. They will recognize and then attack the Alien cancerous cells from within, when they least expect it. I am excited about this, as it sounds like proper sci-fi stuff, and if it works, it will be the beginning of a new way of confronting cancer.”

So, a Ketogenic Diet is strange and like many of these sophisticated trials it does not work for everyone, and in fact it could be dangerous if confronted without the assistance of a superhero like my sister. Actually, now that I think about it I would very much like to see this kind of normal humans publically presented as the new superstars in mainstreamed films….

Hohh I am just listening to the Bad Brains… 😉

xxx

It is 6 years that I have been living with a bunch of aggressive aliens who have squatted in my head. The way that I am talking about them is most probably because during the early 80s I grew up with a certain love for comic books. In fact, right now there is a good part of the Marvel and DC characters which are overwhelming a section of the film world, only in part targeting my age group. In fact, as I hang out with my wonderful 10 year old boy he often expresses his excitement for those particular films which all of his friends use as physically agitated role-playing games.

Today I have been told by the top end oncology professor that I have to get ready as in 4 weeks I’ll once again need to jump into the surgery department of the hospital. So, I will again put my faith in that world and attempt to understand the details of the battle in my brain. Considering that after my second surgical war I realized that I could not read the text that I was typing away, with some calm I’ll pull out my new, computer based superpowers – which did allow me to write the book The Finch in My Brain. Yes, this little blog is now making me focus on how my new vision of these battles has now been forced to embrace the true complexity of reality.

And yes, I am aware that in the world of comic books a change of the hero’s basic character is definitely not allowed. For many social reasons a good one must always keep good. In fact, changes are depicted as the outcome of a sinister force that threatens to undermine a noble, pre-existing establishment. Which makes sense as many of them were created during the world wars. Throughout history social outrage has always come out when a paradigm shift is being presented. But that is in fact the only vision that will keep me alive. Yes, some of the superheroes will need to change their attitude, to embrace the different view and who knows maybe even publicly declare their radically different sexual attitudes. And I myself have a “sentiment”, that I want to save the galaxy, so I’ll put on some spandex for this war as I do hope that my new oncological narrative will not scare any of those old school anti cancer pills that are ‘proven good’.

Yes, I am aware that glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is the most aggressive cancer that begins within the brain (the evil hero). And sadly, what just about every website that I find on Google says is that despite maximum treatment, the cancer usually recurs and that the most survival following diagnosis is 12 to 15 months, with fewer than 3% to 5% of people surviving longer than five years. But I am still alive after 6 years. And, as my oncologist today made me understand it might not be due to my 5 years of very expensive drugs Themodal that has been really keeping me alive.

In fact, what that top oncologist here in Italy told me Today is that the main reason why I am still alive might be that 6 years ago, I took part of a Dendritic Vaccine experiment. Yes, with two brain operations I have a good excuse for not completely understanding the words that deeply explain how exactly this new type of cure works. But, considering that I have today also been told that some new part of the tumor has now started to grow, and that I’ll need to have an operation in one month’s time, here it goes. I’ll attempt to explain why, actually from a quite radical if also ridiculously demonic style I should actually appreciate this new, rather smaller surgery. Oh yea, it will probably be while I am awake once again 😉 So maybe like a super-hero I’ll get to sing a lovely song with a bad tone of voice while they are cutting particular bits from the left side of my brain.

The central part of this Blog is exactly about those particular evil bits in my brain. During the next operation, the lovely crew of the Dendritic Vaccine will be given all the cancerogenous parts that will be cut out. They will immediately bring them to their studio and start working their magic. They’ll turn them into a vaccine. You know, the basic concept of any vaccine is in fact exactly that. To somehow embrace the bad part in a way that the body itself learns how to fight against it. But what makes this drug particularly powerful is that it will be created exactly from the cancer that has been squatting and growing on my own head. It will have grown there, in that area between the part of my brain where memory and visual zone function. And that is why, after two operations I can no longer read or remember what I just typed away just now.

In any case, the advantage of having this operation is? What was it again?
You know, keeping positive thoughts ahead is not the simplest part of the process as everyday it really does need some calm and possibly also some kind of meditation. Fortunately, the computers are pretty cool these days and, with a bit of patience and some pretty flat voice they can give me new powers and remind me what I was attempting to tell you.

Oh yea, now I remember that what I will have to do is to embrace the evil and teach it to come back and fight for the positive side. As it is this rather scary adventure with a surgery that now seems to possibly be the source from which I can stay alive for a while longer by attempting to inspire new research for the entire galaxy.

xxx