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My sister is very dependable.
I always tell her you don't always have to be the pillar.
My sister is the pillar of our family.
It was kind of scary just to see your pillar being weakened or being threatened.
I can't imagine going through life without her.
I got my results back on a Wednesday. On Friday the neurologist just called
and asked to see me because they wanted to discuss the results.
I asked the nurse if that was something bad, she said, oh, the doctor was gonna
talk to you when you get here, so already I thought that that wasn't good.
Usually, when they call you back that quickly, they're not good results.
So, we went, we waited, we held hands. It was very, very clinical.
He had -- was very dry. Then he finally gave his results and said,
yes, you have this tumor, it's large,
and it's in a place where un.. not comfortable operating, and right away he mentioned
I've made the appointment to go to Johns Hopkins and we both kind of looked at each
other and said, wow.
We're going into -- this is big time.
I remember very vividly how anxious and rightly so frightened Marisa was after
this diagnosis that hit her really like a lightning with a blue sky.
We went on to see Olivi and he was very personable, very happy, very gentle,
much different than the doctor had I seen in Virginia and just put us at ease immediately.
We discussed all the different possibilities and outline in a detailed
fashion also what was going to be the process or the journey that we just began together.
The very next day Dee called me at work and said that she and Doctor Olivi has
spoken at ten o'clock that night. And I thought ten o'clock at night you
guys are still working and you're talking about my case, you know, what's wrong with you guys.
People have a lot of choices today in determining where they get their healthcare.
Here at the Brain Tumor Center at Johns Hopkins we provide something a little more
than you can get at most centers. We are an incredibly cohesive group with
an excellent communication back and forth so that all members of the patient care
team are informed and involved through the entire process and I'd hope to think we
add just a little more on that in helping the whole human
experience and supporting the family and the patient throughout the entire
continuum of their care.
I can't say nicer things about that place from checking in, you know, the guards,
going to the places where they take your blood, going to the admin place,
everybody was nice, professional, efficient, courteous. We are willing to provide everything that
we have, but it's also human gratification of a relationship.
He was like a superstar. He comes out to the waiting room.
We have 11 family members all there waiting with bated breath to what he had to say.
Asking 11 totally different questions, having totally different emotions,
and this one man was taking it all in and performing a tremendous job.
He was with each one of them and, I mean, realizing who was a sister, who was
a parent, who was a cousin, who was an aunt, and again, they all felt like he was just
such a nice, nice man. The relationship doctor-patients is always
and should be always a two-ways relationship where there is enriching.
Enriching us as well. I am extremely grateful to patients like
Marisa and other patients just for that very reason because they actually make us better.