Bryon's Story

In April 2008, Bryon suffered a seizure in the last hour of his graveyard shift at work. His concerned co-workers called for an ambulance to take him to Logan Regional Hospital, where he was taken to get a CT scan and blood work done. After his wife arrived, and the results were in, the ER doctor informed Bryon that he had a mass in his brain on the left frontal lobe. This most likely caused the seizure, and he immediately referred Bryon to a neurosurgeon at McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden, UT.

Dr. Winters ordered a contrast MRI that revealed a golf ball sized tumor and explained that surgery was the best option. The surgery was scheduled, and took place in Ogden Regional Hospital, about one week later. The scar was the shape of a horse shoe and held together with metal staples. Bryon’s face swelled with the increased amount of fluids, and he was taking steroids to try to reduce the swelling. The drugs made him short tempered and vicious towards his f amily. He even ripped a bathroom drawer a part when he couldn’t find his tooth brush.

The surgeon assured the family that the tumor, from what he could tell, was a stage 2 tumor and did not appear to be aggressive. There was also a small calcium deposit that had developed on top of the tumor. This was a good indicator that the tumor was not aggressive and that it had grown over a period of several years

rather than months. Some tumor matter was left behind during the surgery, since the doctor did not want to interfere with his patient’s speech or motor skill unless there was no other option. The pathology report would be the deciding factor when it came in. It didn’t take long, but about a week after surgery, the report was a stage two astrocytoma diagnosis. Since brain tumors are very difficult to diagnose, the tumor was sent to the University Hospital in Salt Lake City. There, a tumor board consisting of doctor’s practicing at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, gathered to discuss the pathology report. Their decision was a terminal diagnosis of a stage four, glioblastoma. An aggressive tumor that gives the patient a very short life expectancy without treatment, Bryon’s tumor was now a major threat to his life.

Once again, Bryon was referred to a new doctor. This time it was a Dr. Glantz at the Huntsman Center. This doctor was supposed to suggest and direct the next course of treatment which was radiation and chemotherapy. Before he made the definite decision to do these therapies, he referred Bryon to yet another doctor. Dr.Shrieve did not impress Bryon or his wife and they were extremely disappointed that no one would return their phone calls. When trying to get some idea of when treatment would start, the staff for Dr. Glantz became rude or totally unavailable. Needless to say Bryon had to find himself another doctor.

By this time, it was about a month and half since surgery and no treatment had been done on Bryon’s tumor. Feeling desperate, Bryon and his wife sought out a local oncologist at the Logan Cancer Treatment center in Logan, UT. This facility had just opened and Dr. Ben Jacobs was well known in the community. He was appalled to hear of the delay in treatment and without fail, got Bryon the coordination between doctors’s that he so desperately needed. Dr. Whipple was his radiation oncologist and directed the 6 weeks of radiation treatment, and Dr. Choucair from Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, UT directed the chemotherapy treatments. The chemotherapy was a pill called Temodar, and was taken everyday while on radiation. Then Bryon went on a cycle and only took the drug 5 days out of every month.

Treatment continued on through the fall and into the early part of winter. Bryon was healthy enough to go to work and support his family of a wife and two children. In December, he was scheduled to have a contrast MRI to see if any progress was being made. One week after Christmas, Bryon and his wife went to Dr. Choucair’s office and was told the chemo had been ineffective and the tumor had grown back. Surgery was the best option, until another treatment plan could be decided. At that point, without any further treatment Bryon was told he would have three months to live, and six months if his surgery was successful.

The second surgery happened in January 2009 at University Hospital under the direction of Dr. Randy Jensen. This surgeon was confident he could remove the entire tumor and place chemotherapy wafers in the remaining tumor bed to slow the progress of new growth. It was a success and the post surgery MRI showed all the residual tumor had been removed. Chemotherapy wafers take six to eight weeks to dissolve so no other treatment could be done until that time.

In the mean time, Bryon was recovering from his ordeal. His right side was greatly weakened and he had lost the ability to speak. While in the ICU, Bryon vomited from the anesthesia and due to steroids in his IV his blood pressure went through the roof. The first night was touch and go, but he made it through. After several more days of vomiting and not having any food twelve hours prior to surgery, Bryon’s sodium levels were dangerously low. Nurses put a feeding tube through his nose and fed him a high sodium puree until he was strong enough to eat on his own. Before leaving the ICU, Bryon managed to say the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’ which made communication of pain much easier on him. His entire stay in the hospital was 7 days.

Upon returning home Bryon endured 6 weeks of physical, speech, and occupational therapies to speed up his recovery process. Ironically, Friday March 13^th, Bryon graduated from his therapies and was released to return to work. At the time this post was written, Bryon had not yet gone back to work, but eagerly waits to see his friends and co-workers at Schreiber Foods in Logan, UT. He has been enrolled in a clinical trial at the University Hospital and will receive treatment once a week for a few weeks, then gets a one week break. The process will repeat itself until they know it is working or if he needs to find another course of treatment. Dr. Jensen feels this could make or break the one year life expectancy he has at this time.