Team Kent Update – October 6, 2009
Greetings All,
Me and mom crashed hard and slept a lot over the last few days, so that’s why we haven’t emailed sooner.
At 6 AM on Saturday morning, Dr. Parney’s Resident entered Kent’s ICU room to find him reading his book. Kent was immediately moved out of ICU, and he proceeded to spend the day phoning people “collect,” walking laps around his new ward on the 9th floor, critiquing the hospital menu with the assistant nutritionist and trying to get Deb and Paula to sneak him out of the hospital for a steak dinner. We left him around 6 PM and said we would be back around noon on Sunday with real coffee and a nice takeout breakfast. His instructions were to get some rest.
At 10:30 AM on Sunday morning, the phone rang in the hotel room and I answered it from a sound sleep. Kent blurted out that there was no need to bring him breakfast because he was getting out of cellblock 9 at noon. He then chirped that he didn’t need a coffee either because one of the nurses hooked him up when she did a coffee run that morning. All hopes of sleeping in for the next few days immediately vanished – ha. The energizer bunny was reborn.
True to his word, Kent the Wonderboy was released from the hospital at noon on Sunday. Dr. Parney said that Kent was having an amazing recovery and there was no need for him to stick around. The doctor said that he would contact the neuro-oncologist, Dr. Uhm, so we could see him before we returned to Edmonton.
When we showed up to see Dr. Uhm at 12:30 PM on Monday, Dr. Uhm looked Kent up and down and said, “You’re just not the average bear, are you?” Kent just laughed. Then Dr. Uhm said that he just wanted to see Kent in person, because he couldn’t believe that he would be released from the hospital so soon. He then confessed that when he tried to contact Kent at the hospital that morning, and Kent was not registered as a patient, Dr. Uhm feared that Kent had died – because they never release a brain surgery patient less that 48 hours after surgery. He told Kent that he was having a remarkable recovery, and that it was truly unbelievable. Kent said, “I never had any doubt.” Although we’re sure that all of your prayers must have played a role in this.
Just to put things in perspective for you:
1. They removed approximately 80 grams by volume, or two man handfuls, of tumour tissue from Kent’s coconut;
2. He has 24 large stitches in the shape of a “T” on his head (he has nicknamed himself the new Mary Shelley’s Fran-Kent-Stein);
3 He had a 25 % chance of having temporary neurological problems, an 8-10% chance of permanent neurological problems, and a 1-2% chance of coma or death. No wonder the doctors were shaking their heads.
Dr. Parney is referring Kent to a team of doctors at the Tom Baker Centre in Calgary for continued follow up and chemo treatments. We plan to meet with the Calgary team within the next month, as Kent cannot start chemo treatments until his incisions heal, and that will take at least a month. We are then hoping that the chemo treatments will happen in Edmonton at the Cross Cancer Institute every three weeks until the rest of the tumour is gone.
Interestingly, Dr. Parney and Dr. Uhm are very keen to work in concert with the doctors in Calgary, and continue to play a role in Kent’s treatment. They seemed very impressed with his attitude, his ability to keep his body strong, and the fact that he is somewhat of an anomaly when it comes to patients with GBM tumours. But we all knew that – ha
We managed to get on a flight home to Edmonton this morning and arrived home late this afternoon. We plan to spend the next few days catching up on sleep before heading to the farm for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. We all have a lot to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, that’s for sure.
Heads up on Kent’s new beauty scars. The doctors cut into the same area where he had his previous two surgeries, and they reduced his much-loved divet. However, the new scars are quite dramatic and one of them starts in the centre of his forehead. A lady at the Chicago airport asked him if he was wearing a “downtown Chicago hair cut”. She told us she thought the stitches were tattoos. The good news is that Kent got a free facelift out of the deal. Seriously, they removed all of his forehead wrinkles and he looks like he’s 20 years old. Lucky for me. Now I’m really lookin’ like I robbed the cradle. Me and mom, on the other hand, want to sign up for Botox treatments after this last week on the road. But it’s nothing that a few good glasses of Malbec won’t fix. And that’s another reason why we’re going to have the Splashdown Soiree on October 22nd. We sure hope to see you all there to celebrate Kent’s amazing recovery from surgery.
Party for Pankow in Vancouver a Huge Success!
Jonathan Cruz reports that the “Party for Pankow” on October 2nd was a huge success. Tons of people came together to have fun, raise funds and send healing energy to Kent. Jonathan and his son, Deo, shot some great photos of the event, and Deo recorded parts of the event. Here are the links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M67SrtAi1tc
www.jonathancruz.com/partyin4pankow
We would like to thank Jonathan, Richelle and Joanne, Annalissa, Katie, Gabriella, Deo and everyone else who was involved in planning this amazing event. We would also like to thank the many sponsors, as well as the folks who donated time, funds and/or products in honour of Kent. The kindness and generosity of this community of people is truly incredible – especially since we have never met most of them.
Check out the cool pic above of Rex Weyler, a co-founder of Green Peace, at the Party for Pankow. We sure wish we could have been there…
Splashdown Soiree – Edmonton Fundraiser October 22, 2009
Mark your calendars – the Splashdown Soiree fundraiser will be held in Edmonton on Thursday, October 22, 2009 from 8 – 11 pm at After Dark/Shark Club. You might need to take Friday off…
Highlights Include:
8 pm to 9 pm – Complimentary Snacks
8 pm to 10 pm – Silent Auction
8:30 pm to 9:30 pm – Musical Stylings of Blackboard Jungle
9:30 pm to 10 pm – Open Mic for folks who want to roast Kent, tell stories, etc.
10 pm to 10:45 pm – Blackboard Jungle
10:45 pm to 11:00 pm – Closing Remarks
The event will be emceed by Miekio Ouchi and Elizabeth Marsh. Elizabeth, a professionally trained auctioneer, will be auctioning off a few select items, at some point during the evening.
Please see the Splashdown Soiree poster at the bottom of this email, for more details.
If anyone has a product or service to donate to the silent auction, please email Tracy at: reception@elizabethan.com
Fundraising Update
For those people who are interested in making a donation to Kent’s medical fund, we would like to encourage you to use the Scotiabank system if you are in Canada, and PayPal if you are outside of Canada, since PayPal charges a fee to for their service.
Scotiabank Account # 61903 1244183
Transit # 80689
Address: Terra Losa Centre, 9740 – 170 Sreet N.W., Edmonton, AB T5T 5L5
Phone: 780-448-7506
Donations can be made at any chartered bank, but it is probably easier if it is through a Scotiabank.
Pay Pal Web Page
We The GoTeamKent webpage now has a Pay Pal button, for those of you who are Internet savvy. Here’s the link: www.GoTeamKent.com
Kudos
Thank you very much for the donations we have received to date. We are in the process of sending out thank you cards to those people who we know have made contributions to Kent’s medical fund (via Mayo account, Scotiabank account and PayPal).
Jonathan Cruz fotos 