Please Pray for Pierre!!!
Hello friends and family
Some of you may know that my sweet husband Pierre and I received the news on Friday that nobody wants to hear. “You have a tumor”. Pierre was diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer called Glioblastoma. As anyone can imagine, this is a devastating blow to us. The prognosis is poor and treatment is terrifying! Brian surgery, radiation and chemo for a year, if he even survives the surgery?
Saturday was Pierres 59th birthday which was really tough. We spent the day together laying in bed, holding each other’s hands and crying. We’ve done lots of crying.
He thanks everyone who sent him a birthday email, it meant the world to him.
Pierre had been suffering from bad headaches for about a month and progressed to some memory loss, that became to big to ignore. And MRI was done last Wednesday where we received the first bit of news, and it just got worse after they did another one on Friday with contrast at Cedars Sinai.
After seeing a few neurosurgeons, something wasn’t sitting well in my gut. They wanted to rush Pierre to surgery immediately with a high risk craniotomy. My head was spinning and I just had to look further. On Monday we were able to meet with Dr. Keith Black at Cedars. He spent almost an hour with us going over every step of the diagnosis, risks, treatment options, etc. His demeanor was so calming and confident, that we both knew, he was our guy. Whatever it takes, I want his hands doing the surgery. I’ll send a link of his bio later on, but when you read it, you’ll agree with our choice. He said that when he operates, he’d want to get 95% of the tumor and at this time, it would be too risky to attempt that. His recommendation was that we do a biopsy first. Then next Wednesday, the neuro-oncologists, radiation oncologists and other surgeons will discuss a treatment plan. We expect to do radiation and chemotherapy first. We’ll watch the MRI’s closely to see how the tumor reacts to the treatments and how he feels. If the tumor shrinks, to a point at which Dr. Black feels he can get most of it, we’ll move to the actual brain surgery. He was very good at reminding me to take things a day at a time and not to get ahead of myself.
We’re set for the biopsy, on the morning of August 10th.
A little background on Pierre and I. We met on Match.com (
http://match.com/) in July 2002. Yes that was a thing before Tinder and Bumble. We knew our relationship was something very special as it grew daily, smooth sailing, no games, no ups and downs, just grew into love very quickly. We married and have been by each other’s side ever since. We don’t have any children, but we were ok with that because we had each other and thats al we needed to be happy. Pierre was a chef, so I haven’t even so much made a coffee in 16 years. Every day when I come home from work, he comes down he stairs to give me a kiss and carry my purse inside. He cooks the most amazing meals, and makes sure all of my needs are met in the most unselfish way. Pierre is my everything! Because of this, I cannot imagine the thought of life without him.
Pierre and I are not religious people but we are spiritual in our own way. My ask is that for those of you that are, please keep us and in particular, Pierre in your prayers!! I was hoping to start a caring bridge journal, but right now it’s too hard to face the daily feelings. I will try and keep everyone posted with updates as time allows.
Pierre and I cherish your friendship, and good thoughts , love and encouragement!
If anyone knows anyone that has gone through this type of diagnosis, please let me know. I need to understand this more and could use some support. (Survival stories please, I only want to think positively and stay hopeful).
With love,
Pierre and Jodie Tisserand
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