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 Am I Cured?
A First Hand Resource with Pal-to-Pal Support
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| ProtonPals e-Newsletter | July 2010
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Dear :
Welcome to the ProtonPals and thanks for subscribing to the monthly newsletter. Please share the information and learnings of our group with your friends and family by  forwarding the newsletter. Select this icon and enter your friends e-mail addresses.
One of the most interesting parts of this job is the men and women I meet. They come from all walks of life. Typically for a story I'll pick someone I've met who's background is somewhat like mine and who's interests are the same. I don't mean to offend anyone if you feel overlooked but it takes all the mental verve I have to write all of two stories for this newsletter, and then with some help. If you have a story to tell and you'd like to share it with over 600 other ProtonPals, let me know and send me a draft.
This month I met many new friends but thought I would write about two. 1) A gentleman in his late 80s who was at the forefront in applying knowledge of the atom and knew the top scientists of the nuclear age and 2) a Korean War hero who was awarded the Soldier's Medal because he risked his life to save another young man from drowning. I also met a professional boxer now a coach who I wanted to write about but when it came time to complete the story I didn't have enough information. And I may be too late to interview him since he completes his treatments next Thursday.
What do you think. Is this like the by-line of the late 1950s TV show called the Naked City. It had the famous closing narration "There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of
them."
Well here goes: "There are two thousand stories in the Proton Center. This will be two of them."
I'd also like to call your attention to the 1) Wednesday dinners coordinated by a member of the current "class" in this period it was Tony and Julie Perea, 2) the information sessions that are happening weekly on Wednesdays, 3) the monthly tours in the third week of the month and 4) the support group session held the third Thursday of the month. These are well attended and last Wednesday's dinner had 25 men,family and staff.
Many of the Wednesday diners are getting photographed and their photos published in Facebook. Please use this link to navigate to the photographs. When there pick PHOTOS or PICASA tab. 
Your ProtonPals,
Joe Landry, Ban Capron and Peter Taaffe
ProtonPals
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One of the Stories about a Pal
Clayton McGraw was born in Garnett, Kansas in the early 1930's and one could say
he grew up in the oil patch in Kansas and Oklahoma. Those of us who are from the Southwest and the South and born in that decade remember a way of life and a
way of making a living. We were born in the most severe economic downturn called the Great
Depression that started in 1929 and lasted until the early forties. Unemployment was as high as 25%,
and gainful work was not readily available. The bright side, if there was one, was
that youngsters who wanted to work had few regulations to keep them from working at a young age.
First Sargent Clayton McGraw Receives the Soldiers Medal
 | Clayton's father worked for APCO Petroleum as a pumper. The pumpers and men who supported the production of oil and gas fields were located
where the resources were discovered. In Oklahoma and Texas, this was typically far from
the towns and metro areas where lack of highways made commuting impractical if not impossible.
When you think of remote places, consider the plains of west or south Texas like the
King Ranch town of Falfurrias or Notrees near Odessa, i.e. if you'll remember the movie Lonesome Dove you get the picture.
In the late forties and
early 50s you had to get a social security number to work for most companies and Clayton's social
security number was registered in 1945 when he was only 13. He'd found a job
working at the gas plant where his father worked. When he was 14 Clayton bought his own car which he drove to school and
to football practice. For students out in the farms or in remote company housing just
getting back and forth to the playing fields for practice was difficult. Two
car families, cars pools and soccer Moms with mini-vans were not readily
available.
When Clayton graduated from high school in Kansas and he went to work full-time for APCO. A couple of years later shortly after he was married the U.S. government drafted
him for the Korean conflict. His draft notice read something like this,
"from the President of the United States, you have been chosen..." You can
imagine the emotions that Clayton and Elizabeth, his young wife of 4 months, went through. But duty called and he was proud to serve his country. He went to
Crowder, Missouri where he was inducted into the Army. Little did the Army know
who they had chosen.
The Korean War began in June 25, 1950 when the North Korean army invaded South
Korea by racing down the Cherwon Valley with the objective of capturing
Seoul. They were repelled when the United Nations, more specifically the U.S.,
joined with a counter offensive. The North Koreans were driven back to the Yalu River above the 38th
Parallel. Soon North Korea was joined in the fray by the Communist Chinese with
the Soviet Union helping both China and North Korean with material and expertise
in the air war. After a cease fire that area of the Cherwon
Valley had to be protected and a series of blocking actions were taken by the
U.N. and U.S. forces.
After completion of basic training and leadership school, where Clayton
finished third in his class, he was promoted to platoon leader. Soon after
he sailed aboard a troop carrier heading for Japan. While on board ship the
Korean armistice agreement was signed and an uneasy truce began. When the ship
reached Post Sasabo in Japan the troops were equipped with weapons and full
winter gear. From there they traveled to South Korea where they disembarked
over the side of the ship on rope ladders and were brought ashore in L.S.T's. at
Inchon Korea. From there they boarded trucks, traveled at night and joined the
Tomahawks as the 23rd Infantry Regiment was known on the front line. The
Tomahawk Regiment is a unit with great military history including the Battle of Heartbreak Ridge on Mt. Baldy. Clayton
served 8 months on the front line during this uneasy peace. After those months the regiment moved back to
a blocking position in the valley and fell into training cycles.
During one of the regimental training maneuvers the company's objective had to
be reached by crossing a river that was treacherous and swift. The river stage
was above normal and filled by continuous rains and floods over the
previous 4 days. The training was being done with full gear and weapons. A
young member of Clayton's platoon, Pfc. William Roby, was especially fearful
about the crossing since he could not swim. During the crossing Pfc. Roby lost his footing and was swept downstream by a
swift undercurrent. With the full weight of the equipment pack and his rifle he
sank immediately to the bottom and was swept downstream. After freeing
himself from his pack and tossing his rifle aside Roby surfaced and called for
help. Clayton, being the man he was and also being squad leader,shed his
equipment and his rifle and jumped in the river to help Pfc. Roby. It required a
heroic effort to get to Pfc. Roby and as he went down for the third time,
Clayton was able to get hold of Roby's uniform. Together they made it to shore
safely with Clayton swimming and tugging. Much later the rifles were recovered 3
miles down river where they had been swept by the currents. This whole exercise
was being conducted under observation of the regimental command including two or three
Generals. Clayton had no idea what was coming and the platoon continued on their way.
For his valor and heroism in saving Roby's life while
risking his own, Clayton was awarded the Soldier's Medal. To receive this medal you
must have performed a voluntary act of valor where personal hazard or danger
and the voluntary risk of life was involved. The citation about the medal
reads, "the highest honor a soldier can receive for an act of valor in a non
combat situation."
After 50 years had gone by, Clayton located Pfc. William Roby and with the
help of Congressman Ralph Hall a reunion trip to Washington DC was arranged. There Clayton, his wife Elizabeth and William H. Roby and his family toured many
memorials in Washington. Although Clayton is very modest, he confided to me that in a quite moment in Washington with Roby and his family it struck him how important that act had been and were it not for him that family and children would not be here.
I know all this stretches Clayton's modesty and he would rather I not
publish this, but to me it's an honor to know him, to let others know what it
took to keep this country free. We commend him for his service, AND how about
that a photo of a proud and handsome young man being pinned by a General who
later saluted him. |
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Lyle E. Packard
The Second ProtonPal's Story
Recently I met Lyle Packard at the Proton Therapy Center while he was undergoing prostate treatment. I talked to him about the decade following World War II when there was a major effort to convert and extend the work that had been done developing atomic bombs into peaceful uses of atomic energy. Lyle had played a part in this effort, first by going to work at the University of Chicago in 1946, and then from 1951 to 1971 by founding and operating an independent company manufacturing nuclear instruments.
Early in 1944, just after receiving his degree in Mechanical Engineering, Lyle enlisted in the Navy and was assigned to an electronics training program where the very new and confidential technologies of radar and sonar were being taught. While on his final nine day leave upon completion of this training program, and carrying orders to fly to a Navy Out-Going-Unit near San Francisco, the Atom Bombs were dropped on Japan and the war ended. This, of course, resulted in massive work and a lot of confusion in changing orders for all the ships and personnel that were being staged for the invasion of the home islands of Japan at that time. For Lyle, it simply meant not being shipped out as part of that proposed invasion and being assigned to temporary duty at the OGU until being discharged in the spring of 1946.
Although there are people who still today are critical of President Truman for authorizing the use of the Atom Bombs, it should be clear that the amount of death and destruction caused by them would have been far surpassed by what would have occurred on both sides had the invasion of Japan proceeded as planned.
Shortly after getting out of the Navy, Lyle headed home where he got a job with the University of Chicago working with one of three institutes formed for peacetime use of the atom at the end of the war. Many of the scientists who formed the institutes came out of the Metallurgical Lab or MET LAB as it was named as a cover for bomb research in the Manhattan Project. This was a very important site for our national security and was the place where the world's most skilled scientists had worked. It was there that the first atomic reactor was built, called CP 1. Wouldn't you know it, a labor strike kept it from being built at the Argonne National Laboratory in a forest preserve 25 miles southwest of Chicago, where it was later moved. Enrico Fermi, Martin Whittaker and Walter Zinn set about building it under the football stadium named Stagg Field. So the first sustained nuclear chain reaction was tested in a highly populated area of Chicago.
Lyle's work was not directly related to the wartime research but followed on the heels of it to the peaceful use of atom energy. His role was to design and engineer offices, labs and equipment for the scientists who were turning their focus to peacetime use of their nuclear knowledge. Some of the scientists working there in these new Research Institutes were the most notable and accomplished in the world, Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, Edward Teller and Arthur Compton. If fact his very first office was in between Teller's and Fermi's offices. He modestly qualifies this by saying he later shared this office with a few other engineers and draftsmen before moving to another building.
In his 5 years in the job between age 24 and 29 Lyle was called on to build many laboratory instruments that grew out of discoveries and research at Argonne, Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and other laboratories. In fact he moon-lighted nights and weekends to build instruments for other universities and institutes world wide before leaving the University. All who visited the new Research Institutes were intrigued and wanted to know where such equipment could be purchased.
At age 27 he formed his own company to meet that demand for equipment. It went public in 1961 and set up sales and service offices throughout Europe, and in Israel, Australia and Brazil. In 1967 that company was acquired by a large New York Stock Exchange listed company and is now part of one of the largest scientific instrument companies in the world. Since that time, in addition to some totally unrelated companies, he has taken over and still owns a small company that manufactures medical x-ray components for use in the large systems manufactured by major suppliers of such x-ray systems used in hospitals everywhere.
I know this is a stretch but consider that the genesis of proton therapy is linked in a way to the work in Chicago and eventually it was the scientists from the Fermi Lab that built the Loma Linda proton therapy accelerator(a synchrotron) in 1986. They moved it (the synchrotron) to Loma Linda in 1989. Fermilab: It's Role in Proton Therapy Development in U.S.
August 4th is Lyle's 88th birthday and we wish him a happy birthday and many more. He flies out from Chicago to the "Big Island" of Hawaii next Thursday where he now lives much of the year.
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Tour Downtown
A Cell Phone is All You Need for a Guided Tour of Houston
Take a tour of Houston without hiring a guide. All you do is dial 713-300-0892 with your mobile phone and enter the stop nuhmber. You'll hear a recorded voice describe one of 25 different sites.
The tour begins at Stop No. 1 the Wortham Center. Read about the other sites with a Detailed Written Guide
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Prostate Cancer Quandary
Wall Street Journal Article by Melinda Beck
Scientists may soon be able to answer the agonizing question facing men with prostate cancer: Does their cancer need immediate treatment or can it be left alone.
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Don't Sweat It
Heat Can Get to You - How to Survive
As my deck approaches 100 degrees today, I'm reminded of the Houston Chronicle article about beating the heat in Houston, and I'm reminded of Tai Ly's advice to a foursome who played golf at Memorial Park last summer and ended up in the clinic really heat stressed. She said, "Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid day sun". No I'm just kidding, that's not what she said. That was the author Rudyard Kipling who wrote that while in India in the early 1900s, the natives of the area and further south don't go out in the mid day sun because it can be brutal from now until the end September. Here's a short summary about the article in the Chronicle. Cindy George interviewed a professor as the University of Texas School of nursing and she's got the following good advice. - Carry liquids and an umbrella. Walk into a department store and cool off when you need to.
- Precautions - carry a gallon of water with you in your vehicle. We're not quite the deserts of California and Nevada but good advice just the same.
- One of the tragic consequences in this season is leaving children in a car or truck.
- Cover up with protective light cottons and UV block with high SPF.
- How to get enough water? - pre-hydrate, just like at the Proton Center. Need to add 4 to 6 glasses of water for the summer
- If you work outside, cover your head and arms and know the warning signs of heat exhaustion.
- Athletes and folks who work out and jog - avoid the mid day sun by working out in early morning or late afternoon.
- Elderly people may be pushed over the edge by too much exertion.
Here's the entire article in the Houston Chronicle by Cindy George
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Weekly Information Sessions at the Proton Center
Coordinated by Carolyn Allsen, Nurse Manager (also posted on the ProtonPals website)
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Beam News For August ... every Wednesday | Time | | Aug 4 |
Chuck Merrifield RTT
Therapy Supervisor for PTC
Excellent information on your treatment and photos of behind the scenes at PTC
| 1 - 2 PM | | Aug 11 |
Fellow Proton GU patients returning to answer your many questions....what to expect during and after treatment with and without Lupron!
Will have two ProtonPals, a 3 year veteran Peter Taaffe and a 2 year veteran Thomas Reed | 10 - 11 AM | | Aug 18 |
Amy Stahl MS CNSD, LD, RD
Sr. Clinical Dietician
Maintaining a Healthy Diet | 1 - 2 PM | | Aug 25 |
Curtiss Beinhorn, LMT, NCTMB
Massage Therapy
Please don't miss this meeting.
| 10 - 11 PM |
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The Wednesday Separate Checks Meet Up Dinner
Coordinated by the Current Group
For the past three months the patients in the center have organized meet-up dinners at various restaurants around the Houston area and it's been extremely successful as you can tell from the photos. Last month Joyce and Earl welcomed us to their Memorial Park area home for dinner. Thanks Joyce and Earl. The custom looks like it will continue but only if a new coordinator accepts the torch being handed off each time. Next week Tony and Julie Perea will be leaving for New Mexico and I hope someone will accept the challenge. Consider that it's a way of giving forward and really not too much work; you get to pick the restaurants you like for 6 to 8 weeks. We're working off of a tried and tested restaurant list handed down by Don and Kim, plus I'm available with some help. Also there's a list on the web site first published a couple of years ago by Trevor Bradway Trevor's Restaurant Recommendations.
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Chill Out In Houston Museums
A Multitude of Museums
As befits America's fourth-largest city, Houston's museum scene represents an embarrassment of riches. The city boasts collections ranging from fine art to dinosaur bones to the business of funerals, so there's a good chance something will tickle your fancy. Most visitors stick to the Museum District a few miles southwest of downtown. It's a loosely organized grouping of 18 institutions, many within walking distance of one another (most are free, to boot). Travelers wanting to delve into the tremendous diversity of Houston culture will want to set course for the more out-of-the-way museums as well. 1-713-715-1939. Houston Museum District In July, Marcia and I saw the works of Charles M. Russell and as the Houston Chronicle noted about his work - this is a "A painting you must see before you die". The exhibition will be there through August. When the Land Belonged to God
 | The complete article about five museums. Texas Jorney AAA Article
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A Personal Odyssey - Part 4 of 8
Experiences at the Proton Therapy Center and Houston
This month we're publishing the fourth part of a journal by one of our ProtonPals. On July 19th Gene visited Houston for his 3 month check up and all is well. PSA down to rock bottom.
The
Odyssey,
Part 4
I now have it on good authority
from my son who assures me by virtue of his extensive interaction with Asian
physicians through his work in the medical field, that the correct pronunciation of Nguyen is indeed
"Win." I have re-confirmation from my radiation technologist whose
last name also happens to be Nguyen. On further inquiry, I'm told that
the oncologist's first name, Quh-N, is pronounced "Quinn." Ah! "Qhuin Win." I'm thinking her parents either have a unique sense of
humor, or a short memory.
While speaking of names, "Bob"
comes to mind. I first met Bob, or I should say encountered Bob, in the
early stage of preparation preceding radiation treatment. Bob "aided" my
oncologist, Dr. Lee, in the placement of carbon markers internally to outline
the prostate for precise targeting of the proton ray. This involved lying
on my side with my right knee bent upward to my chest with my posterior exposed
for the coup de grace.
All would have gone well if I
had understood fully beforehand the proper positioning and the procedure to
come. Bob, standing well over six feet with muscles to match and a
personality in need of an extreme makeover, grasped me into the assumed position
with a strangle hold on my torso and a thrust of my knee upward. My
oncologist, who stands astride with plunger in hand, obviously is refereeing
this match in favor of Bob since I am now questioning his empathy for my
persona (he keeps calling me "Sir"). At the very least, I think, Bob
should receive a mandatory 10-second penalty for an illegal wrestling hold, and
definitely disqualified for a sneaky finger poke up my butt. I now come
to understand that the referee is part of a tag team with intent to qualify my
rear end as a conduit for further transgression. I am clearly outmatched.
(Good Old Bob is not
representative of the exceptional care that I have received from so many others
at M.D. Anderson. After I broach the subject with Dr. Lee a few weeks
later, he promises to discuss it with Bob. I also remind Dr. Lee that as
long as he and I have this intimate relationship that it would be most
agreeable if he would at least refer to me by my first name rather than "Sir."
I am not sure he is completely comfortable with that. Would he prefer to
maintain a professional arms distance relationship for obvious reasons, I
wonder? (I think we have made some progress. At my "see" on Thursday, he referred to me by my last name. I
once again remind him that my given name would be preferable.))
There is an enigma among the
selected few that receive "The Odyssey" as noted by the email addresses
above. All are family, close friends, or former co-workers with whom I
share a special relationship. I know each of you, and some of you know
each other. However, there is among you, a person that I know only by his
pseudonym, "Jim T", but who is no less a special friend. For whatever
reason of his own, he prefers to remain anonymous. Beyond that, I know he
is one very smart fellow.
The story with Jim starts a
continent down under in New Zealand a few years
ago. There resides another bright fellow with a special ability to
encipher software code into operative language specific to a trading/charting
program known as "MetaStock." In other words, he pops the "Genie"
out of the bottle by writing a monthly newsletter by subscription that enables
traders seeking the "Holy Grail" of trading to
become more proficient in the application of indicators and systems within MetaStock. For better or worse, I am one of those seeking to stroke the "Genie!"
Eventually, the bright fellow
down under invites Jim to write a guest article that provides greater insight
into the usage of the software in the development of practical trading systems. At last, instead of the mumbo
jumbo of esoteric algebraic formulas, I am
finally given something I can put together into a usable trading format.
I am elated. Only trouble is: Jim stuffs the "Genie" back into the
bottle. Trading systems, I learn, are workable only until they are
unworkable. Trading is a never ending zero sum game where the conditions
are ever changing, and so, too, must the system. There is no "Holy
Grail."
I am nonetheless impressed by
Jim's expertise and matter-of-fact approach to trading. Jim and I strike
up an email version of pen pals. We discuss
investing and trading. And, eventually over time, we become less
impersonal friends. He learns of my prostate condition. By
his response, I learn that he regularly delves into published medical research
and is quite aware of developments in the field. He is also apparently
knowledgeable about nutrition and holistic medicine
and offers advice intended to help me with the side
effects of radiation and hormone therapy. He recommends that I try a special preparation of tea as well as some other
herbal products to induce calmness and restful sleep. I'll let you know
later how that works out.
I have spoken before of the
empowerment of the internet. I am thankful that in our time that people
from anywhere in the world, from all walks of life, can forge friendships and
share common interest to the benefit of each, even though they may remain an
enigma. Thank you, Jim. (I hope one day you will tell me who you
are.)
The weekend beckons. The
forecast is for sunny weather, though somewhat chillier than the moderate
weather of the past days. There's a park across from the apartment complex
that contains a golf course, a Japanese flower garden, a "Choo-Choo" train that
circumvents the park, a lagoon for paddle boats, walking/jogging trails and a
zoo. I'm told the zoo houses 4600 species of animals. I'm anxious
to visit it. I want to see if Good Old Bob is back in his cage.
Today, as I waited for the
shuttle I saw a young girl, about seven or eight, frail, nearly bald, with her
mother getting ready to leave. She was wearing a jacket with the
following words imprinted:
"Live,
Love, Laugh" That's worth remembering.
My wife returns to Houston on Tuesday. It's time to see if the vacuum
cleaner works.
For a PDF version of Gene's entire story please go to the ProtonPals website.
The Odyssey
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ProtonBob Newsletter
You Should Know about The Brotherhood and it's Newsletter
Robert "ProtonBob" Marckini was motivated by what he felt and experienced when his older brother underwent radical prostate surgery. It was in the family and his father had died from the tumor. After tracking his rising PSA for a few years and having two negative biopsies, he was diagnosed in August 2000 with prostate cancer. After the experience with his father and brother, Bob had researched the modes of treatment extensive and chose proton therapy. He completed treatment in December at the Loma Linda University Medical Center. Many of us have read his book and relied on the results that are reported from Loma Linda as a basis for our decision. I did both - one of my friends was treated in California and I learned about Bob's book from him, "You Can Beat Prostate Cancer (and you don't need surgery to do it".) On the chance that you have not heard about Bob and his book or the organization, The Brotherhood of the Balloons, I'd like to call your attention to the leadership and resources he provides. In the next few weeks Bob's planning to conduct a comprehensive survey of his membership. I plan to contact Bob to see if we can participate whether or not we're members of the Brotherhood. If you fill out a survey I'd ask that you do a favor to the ProtonPals by sending us a copy of your response. Bob plans to write a paper, (which I totally support) but I'd also like to have separate results from our M.D. Anderson ProtonPals group. My plan is to share it with the ProtonPals. Bob's site is at .... Proton Bob's Web Site
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PSA Screening Cuts Deaths by 50%
A 14 Year Scientific Study Based on a Simple $50 Blood Test - Where's the harm.
No question that prostate-cancer screening outweigh the harms that was touted in earlier studies caused by over screening : A study led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden has found that screening with the PSA test cut the mortality rate by almost half over a 14-year period.
Here in the Wall Street Journal, Katherine Hobson reports on a 14 year study conducted in Sweden. When detected early prostate cancer is easier to treat and the cure rates are much higher.(Dr. A. K. Lee) Ignorance is not bliss, in the long run.
Prostate Cancer Screening Saves Lives - WSJ Article
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About ProtonPals
Thank you for subscribing to the newsletter and using the ProtonPals web-site. You'll receive one or at most two mailings a month around mid month. In addition to the newsletter we'll also send one or two additional emails of special events or news that are of interest to the group that month. ProtonPals is a group of men who chose proton beam therapy to cure their cancer and were treated at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Proton Therapy Center in Houston, Texas. The "Pals" and their caregivers formed a network of Pals in order to: - Stay up to date with treatment cure results
- Provide support to others and Center activities
- Be informed on any side- effects
- Promote proton radiation since it's widely regarded to have a significant advantage over conventional x-rays.
- Attract and nurture more Pals who support our cause, patient-to-patient and friend-to-friend
Joe Landry, Ban Capron and Peter Taaffe
15806 Manor Square Drive
Houston, Texas 77062 - 4743
ProtonPals, Ltd.
Support ProtonPals by letting us know how you're doing. As a former patient we'd all welcome your help in getting the word out about proton radiation and how you're doing. Please donate using the Donate Icon below or mail a check made out to ProtonPals, Ltd.(we're now tax deductible) at the address above. Read more about about it on the website How to Help - Giving
ProtonPals, Ltd. is a 501 (c) (3) public charity501 (c) (c)
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