Craig’s Story

Site created on April 26, 2018

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Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.A new path of life started two months ago when I started having a whole bunch of symptoms I never experienced before. The culmination of tests, appointments, and specialists came to the conclusion two weeks ago that I have a brain tumor in the central area of my brain called the corpus collusem. 

My choice was to be treated at Penn University's Neuroscience Department and I really wanted to have Dr. Donald O'Rourke to be my treating neurosurgeon. Brain Tumors is all he does and he is on national brain tumor fellowship and is the chair of the national brain tissue bank research group. 

I called them last week, they had an appointment opening with Dr O'Rourke this past Tuesday and I am now scheduled for a craniometry (open skull brain surgery) this coming Thursday (4/26) to remove it. It was a true miracle to be seen by him, let alone in a week with a surgery opening the following week. The push for immediate surgery is that it is not near my reading, communicating, learning hub now so get it out before it grows into that spot. The only major post-op risk is losing feeling and control of my right leg for a couple months until the swelling from surgery subsides. If the pathology comes back as cancer and not benign, I will start other treatments in six to eight weeks.

To say the least, Alisa and I were shocked, but our faith is strong and I know no matter what, it's going to be okay. There have been so many things people would call coincidences, but the string of them, the timing, the complexity of how things worked out, points to a God bigger than these circumstances that I trust has it in His hands for today, on Thursday while the team is removing the tumor deep in my head and in the future.

Newest Update

Starting all over again.

Journal entry by Craig Robertson —

September and October unfortunately has been a set back to my recovery.  I was able to enjoy a great weekend in State College with my wife’s family over Labor Day and was able to get a long weekend of fishing with my brother and long time friends/cousins Dean and Gene in Ocean City, MD before the seizures started to begin again.  It’s now my real indication that something is going awry again in my head.  I called Penn and they had me down for an MRI which showed another area of concern on the opposite side of the brain.  This one had grown in weeks.  The following week I was back in the neurosurgeon’s office to schedule a resection surgery to remove as much as they could.  They were able to get almost all of it, but protocols always require radiation and chemotherapy.  This coming Monday, I am meeting with the remaining care team to begin the process all over.  I’ve recovered well from surgery two weeks ago and I’m heading to work tomorrow and Friday to get out of the house and to get caught up.  We were hoping to have a couple months or at least a year after the initial treatment to not have it be so much a part of our lives.  The last 18 months have been like a marathon for my wife and me.  We felt so glad to have everything done and were ready to lead a cancer care group at our home church.  

Despite the journey, God has been very good to us. We’ve been able to move into a home last December that requires literally no work, enjoy time together and I was able to get back to work and continue like things were normal.  Unfortunately, my cancer has gotten worse and it has now become a stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) rather than stage 3 anaplastic astrocytoma that I was diagnosed with 18 months ago.  The stage 3 is more rare, but the stage 4 is serious.  Thankfully, there are numerous treatments available and due to the diagnosis, there are plenty of clinical trials that will be available to me to participate in as well.  My stage 3 only had one type of chemo, now there are dozens of different types based on what my genetics turn out to be.  Sometimes you get to a point where you never know how to react, what next, what will the next year look like?  As I reflect, I come back to just living today.  There are so many references in God’s word about mercies are new each day, to not worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will take care of itself.  If I become so concerned about tomorrow, I could miss the gem in front of me today.  

Read More of the journal titled "Starting all over again."
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