Post 1

I wanted to take a moment to send a note out on my own behalf while I still have all my faculties and give you as much as information as Kristine, Maddie, Jake, and I have at this moment. First I want to express my sincerest appreciation for the numerous emails, calls, texts and other forms of reaching out to me and my family during this difficult time. You know we all talk about our Marine family and that we are all there for each other but it really never hits home until moments such as this and it is heart warming and I can't thank you all enough.

So the big question I'm sure in most of your minds is what is going on and how did this all happen? So here is the skinny..

9 April I had two MRI's scheduled for that evening based of my post deployment health assessment because while deployed I noticed a significant hearing loss in my left ear. We have great medical coverage no doubt but we are all aware of the bureaucracy and time it takes to get seen by the appropriate specialists. In addition, as most of you are aware I have/(had) a retirement date of 30Nov10 and part of the process is to ensure things are accurately captured in your medical records for VA claims either now or later after retirement. So I saw my primary care manager and shared I was having some difficulty sleeping and getting headaches once or twice every two weeks when I'm normally accustomed to only getting one or two in a year. The sleep deprivation I will attribute trying to hang with GySgt Sampson and his crew in Afghanistan..the man is a beast and although we may not have always seen eye to eye on all matters I can never express in words the joy I had to be out there with them. I'm going to paraphrase Eric by saying "you IA's that supported 2MEB, brought data link back to the Marine Corps" and my charge to the younger generation is to keep charging forward, you are only scratching at the surface of what the imagery intel community has to offer plus the entire intel organization as a whole. There are exciting times ahead in Marine Corps Intel and I hope you folks realize it..With BGen Stewart at the helm and his newly selected A-DIRINT soon to be retired Col Chudoba they have vision and those of us who have worked for them in the past know they understand they don't have all the answers and seek out ideas from the younger generation both enlisted and officer. I realize I've digressed some but even sick I care about our organization and needed to express my thoughts.

Anyhow, back to the story at hand..I had my MRI's that evening at Ft Belvoir (Dewitt Army Hospital)..the young tech asked if I experienced headaches on the left side of my head and I shared that I did.. Mentioned he had to let the on duty Radiology doctor look at them before I could leave. Of course this where it gets all sticky..he would come visit me and explain he needed to talk to my PCM or the ENT doctor who scheduled the one for the hearing..of course its Friday night and Quantico has a clinic only open Mon-Fri.. I did happen to have the duty number but of course the duty Corpsman couldn't call my PCM.. I tried Bethesda for them to page the ENT and of course give us an hour but we'll page. No panic had set in as of yet so Kristine and I let the tech know we were going to grab a bite to eat while we waited for a doctor to call. Finally got to thinking properly and called Quantico Clinic again and explained that I needed the duty doctor to give Belvoir a call because they were holding me hostage..
Within minutes they called and the radiology doctor said I needed to walk over to Emergency..that I had a large mass on the left front portion of my brain. At this point I'm nervous but not really scared..and here is why.. the day prior I had a final set of hearing tests with a doctor at Andrews and while putting me through a variety of tests she had questioned if I had an MRI scheduled. After her screenings she mentioned that I did have permanent hearing loss and normally its attributed to two reasons since my hearing loss was truly sudden..first is I'm just one of the lucky ones and it happened and second there could be a tumor in the inner ear which she calmed me by telling it would be benign and we could get it removed with no issue. Therefore, at that point I was thinking that what it isand calm at that point... of course I have this large mass in my head but I still get to wait in the ER room for an hour before they bring me back.. :-)
Once back the attending ER comes in and explains he's been on the phone with the attending Neurosurgeon at Walter Reed and they've seen the MRI's and since I'm part of big Navy I could be seen at Bethesda on Monday @ 1300..almost had me convinced until they handed me the radiologic examination reports..left Kristine and I alone to discuss and if we wanted to be seen that night they would get me to WRAMC or I could go home..but as I said I had the reports and as I read them the one for the acoustic neuroma (hearing) came back negative and the other one read pretty grim and it's pushing 2300/2400 that evening been a long day and now I'm getting nervous. So we decided we wouldn't get any rest over the weekend so lets head up to WRAMC..Go home grab a shower and some gear because I have no idea what lays ahead.
They were expecting me and got me back to see the neurosurgeon quickly..he runs me through a series of neuro motor skills tests and while I'm knocking them out of the park I'm thinking I should have gone home got some sleep and just listened earlier and came back on Monday..... However, what came next was like getting kicked in the "jimmy" not once but a couple of times... what sticks out the most is we asked ok what is the mass and the response "it's a cancerous brain tumor" and you are not going to hear another word I say.. I can attest he was right.. Kristine and I were taken aback and numb..once the initial shock passed we both went into our mode of needing to know why, how do we fix it and a myriad of other questions..I was admitted to the hospital for observation and additional testing..

Early tests show the tumor to be aggressive but unfortunatley even though it's 2010 it is still only speculation until they can get some of the tumor and have it tested via neuro pathology. For those of you who know Kristine if she could have forced them to cut me open the next day she would have been okay with it..but I'm a little more hesitant because it is my noggin and I, like the doctors are wanting to ensure they have a solid plan before they go in. I was released on the evening of the 11th and at this point my nuerosurgeon (Dr Cooper) believes it's an Astro Cytoma. It could be a glioma which I pray that it's not because they are four WHO levels (I-IV) with IV being the worst and unfortunately even with the most aggressive treatment 16-24 months is all I would have left if a level IV.
Fast forward to 19 April..Kristine and I met with Dr. Cooper to discuss the procedure on Friday. Our impression when I left the hospital on the 11th is they were going to do a resection where they go and take as much of the tumor out on the 19th.. However, he chose to give us 3 options and like a good intel assessment there was the throw away option.. and gave us two to choose from "either a cranial biopsy or a resection". After further discussion it his recommendation that the rewards do not justify the risks of a resection at this time. It is a big tumor gang..bigger than a golf ball but a little smaller than a tennis ball..In grand style if I'm going to do something I'm going to go all out..that's just how I roll.... So Thursday the 22nd I'll go up to WRAMC and get admitted and sometime early Friday morning they go in and cut a nice hole in the left side of my head and take a big chunck out for testing. With any surgery there is risk but for those of you who either live here in the beltway or have in the past know I have a better chance of dying in a car accident out there than this..or so I am going to keep believing. What do I need from you? I need your continued prayers and well wishes.. I'm extremely confident I can beat this for a period of time as long as it's not a WHO IV..I'm working on developing a blog site so all can follow and get updates..email is fine but we all know how fast our limited NMCI accounts fill up.

Additionally, I wanted to take another moment to make another pitch for the "Race for Hope DC" 5K walk/run being held on 2May10. I've had lots of time by myself in my vehicle to and from WRAMC this past week for follow-on tests and I have this sense that I'm to become a voice for this disease. What I have recognized is this is bigger than "JD Caraway" there are many more folks just like me and until recently it wasn't a part of my world. Kristine's office started this endeavor with a very humble $500 goal and it was met within minutes from her office and it was raised to 1k, then 2k, 4k and we just upped the goal to 10K. To those of you who have already submitted your donations "Thank You"..it means alot..for those of you who haven't as of yet if you can even if it's only $10 please do so..I recognize times are tight for everyone and understand if you can't. For those in the N.VA area my goal is to be there that morning..and if God willing I'll be walking but at minimum will be pushed through the course via a wheel chair.. I'm not joking folks this is going to be my first forum as we kick this in the butt..we are working on developing a typical Marine green "PT" shirt with EGA on front breast and Gunny symbol on back encircled by the words "The Gunny's Team" and as more info is available for that we will post via the blog which can be found at (http://thegunnysteam.blogspot.com/).. I hope this works...Bottomline with the t-shirt is to buy excess and what little money we make from them to put towards the over fund raising goal for the Race for Hope.

You can register and/or make a donation by going to http://www.braintumorcommunity.org/site/PageServer?pagename=RFH_DC_HomePage and searching for The Gunny’s Team.
If you have questions on how to join The Gunny’s Team, please contact Ms Sarah Tozer @:
Sarah Tozer, National Realty Partners, AAMC®
365 Herndon Pkwy #111, Herndon VA 20170
Office: (703) 673-9135
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!!

In closing, I've spent the last week trying to make sense of this and the only thing I know for certain at this point is life is truly short...I have no regrets, I have a beautiful wife and we bore two beautiful offspring and they are at an age that if my time comes to an abrupt end then I did what was meant to be done. So take a moment today and reflect and make sure you have no regrets..and God Bless you all for your thoughts and prayers...