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LIVING WITH A ‘SUPER HERO’ “| go to bed each night with this amazing woman, fearless, worried about those around her more than herself, and she wakes up each day treating each day as a gift. .. John Foote It’s been two years. Two years since I felt the ground beneath my chair tremble, our lives forever altered by the news our doctor was delivering. Sherri, my wife, had brain cancer. Dr. Anthony Brown, one of the most decent and gentle men I know, looked us each in the eye and told us there was a large, malignant brain tumor in the frontal area of Sherri’s brain, and she needed immediate surgery. He had altendy Again, Monday through Friday for six weeks she went down to Sunnybrook - arranging her rides, as she was not allowed to drive - never complaining; she went through this stoic, even when her hair began to fall out leaving her with what she called the “Benjamin Franklin cut”. I did not care. She looked beautiful to me. Following radiation, there was a mark on her brain that concerned the doctors and on New Year's Eve, while holidaying at the Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls with our girls, we got the news it was not a new growth of tumor, saving us from the chemo treatment we were preparing for. re is no known “cure” for brain cancer. There is still not a lot known about it and it is among the least funded of cancer research programs. I watched her pay attention when people she knew died of cancer, I watched her reaction when Senator Ted Kennedy suc- cumbed to brain cancer, diagnosed two days after her. “It will come back, it will become active again”, Dr. Parry, her made the arrangements for us to see a knew and trusted at Sunnybrook the next day. We iat stunned, though Sherri was surprisingly calm. Itall began two nights earlier when I awoke at one in the morning to violent convulsions beside me in bed. I threw the lights on to see my wife, normally a deep sleeper in the throes of a grand mal seizure. It went on and on and to say I was afraid was an understatement, I was terrified. So long did she convulse I eventually began watching for blood to come out of her ears, and thought to myself, “This is how Sherri is going to die”. Iheld onto her and told her I loved her, and gradually the seizure subsided enough for me to get to a phone. I dialed 911 and the ambulance was dispatched. It took quite some time for the paramedics to revive her... enough time that they were concerned. When she came around she was disoriented, finally calling my name and telling me she was scared. They loaded her on to a chair for the ride down the stairs and it was off to the hospital. There we spent the night while my Dad, who by some incredible fluke happened to be staying with us that night, looked after our girls. ext day we were sent to Oshawa for a CT scan which revealed a mass. The next day it was back to Oshawa for a more detailed MRI - and this revealed a large malig- nant tumor. Cancer. Through it all, Sherri was an ocean of calm, a pillar of strength. No tears, no weak moments, nothing. Quiet fear and realization. When told it was a large malignant tumor, she paused and asked “OK, what's next?” The surgery went well and the neurosurgeon, Dr. Fazl, who I heard postpone his vaca- tion to do this surgery, was able to get only a portion of the tumor (any more would have caused brain damage) to be followed by radiation. Sherri’s gorgeous red locks had been shorn and a nasty, much larger than we anticipated scar displayed where they had gone into my wife’s head. Radiation came next. 36 FOCUS - JUNE 2010 ist has told us, “it is just a matter of when.” So she lives with this time bomb in her head, doing John Foote with his wife Sherri, who he calls his ‘superhero’. Sherri has battled braii for the past two is itive about her future.