Fighting WITH Frank

We are starting this group to help show support for Frank. This is a little about his background, as relayed by Melissa, if you don't already know...

In April of 2014, Frank started getting headaches and neck pain. He could deal with the pain, and eventually the pain would subside. For months, it was a back and forth battle trying to manage the pain, each month getting a little worse. On July 31, Frank called Melissa at work. He had one of the worst headaches he’d ever had. He and Melissa headed to the Mercy Hospital emergency room. While at the ER, an MRI discovered a mass the size of a tennis ball in Frank’s brain. Frank was transferred to the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics (UIHC). The next day (August 1), the mass was removed during a 10 hour surgery. The diagnosis was Glioblastoma multiforme, the highest grade glioma (grade 4) tumor and is the most malignant form of astrocytoma. These tumors originate in the brain. After the diagnosis, the doctors informed Frank and his family that his life expectancy is 14 months.



At that time, Frank entered treatment at the UIHC. He had radiation (XRT) every Monday through Friday for 7 weeks, a daily chemotherapy pill, and a Vitamin C infusion. During that time, Frank felt well enough to go to work and continue most of the things that he did before his diagnosis.



On July 1, 2015, during Frank’s normal 2 month MRI, it showed that there was a new brain tumor. The option was to go through surgery again. Frank had surgery on July 13 to remove the new tumor. No one was expecting the tumor to come back that fast. After all, our son was getting married August 3 and we had planned on attending. Unfortunately, since Frank needed the surgery, he was not able to attend the wedding that took place in Destin, Florida.



On August 11, Frank had another MRI and we were shocked and devastated that the MRI showed a new tumor. NOT able to do XRT or Surgery due to fact that he had already had the allowed amount of radiation, and the fact that the tumor was too close to the spots where the previous tumors were. The hope was to start clinical... trial and chemo tomorrow. Neither one of us thought that the MRI would show anything after only a month. This tumor was new and was not there a month ago. Our hope was that the chemo and clinical trial would stop its growth. Another MRI was scheduled for August 31.

Another Frank update 8/13/15.. Met with XRT doctor. They decided to do radiation (which is called radiosurgery) it's a high dose of radiation and is only given once. We were told there are 2 tumors, not one.
Frank started his clinical trail along with doing chemo 5 days a month on August 17.



On October 13, Frank was having some left sided weakness and was taken to the ER. From the ER, he had an MRI which showed a new tumor with progression. Because of this new information, the clinical trial had to be stopped. Frank was then started on Avistan and CCNU, an anti-cancer chemotherapy drug. He was also given steroids to try and help the weakness in his left leg and hand.

On October 20, Frank was in a lot of abdominal pain and was taken to the ER again. This time, he needed emergency surgery because he had air in his stomach, and they thought he had a hole in his colon. After surgery, they reported that he had an abscess, and that they could not find a hole.

Frank is unable to continue cancer treatments for at least 6 weeks. He needs to completely heal from surgery. Hopefully, the cancer does not spread while he is recovering. We are hoping that the avistan and the chemo he’s already had will work until he is able to start treatments again.

Right now, October 23, 2015, Frank is still an inpatient at UIHC.



Frank and Melissa are focusing on his health and their family as much as they can. But, as you can imagine, the out of pocket expenses of the surgeries, ER visits, hospital stays, treatments, MRI’s and appointments are an added concern for both of them. Because of this any support you can offer, no matter how big or small, will ease the stress.

Thank you for all of the love and support! We know we aren't fighting alone, and for that, in this journey, we are so very grateful!