10/04: Left frontal biopsy showed primary CNS lymphoma
7/05: Completed 9 courses of methotrexate-based blood-brain barrier disruption chemotherapy
9/05: Recurrence
4/06: Completed Temozolomide x 6 cycles with isolated intra-ocular progression.
5/06: Completed high dose ARA-C x 1 cycle, d/c by pt preference.
9/06: Started on Chinese herbs
7/07: Completed 4 cycles of HDMTX
2/08: RT to orbits completed
4/09: Recurrence of cells OD; restarted Ivit MTX
11/09: Last Ivit MTX – vitreous has been clear since then
That is the break down from my Neurooncologist, Dr. Peereboom at the Cleveland Clinic.
My story begins in 1998 when I was hired as Police officer for Valley View Police, and was scooped up the first week on the job to play on the Ohio Lawmen softball team and went on to win a gold medal in the Police and Fire Olympics. I was, and still am the only officer from that department to participate and medal (Silver and 2 Gold) in these games. I was asked to play on this team by a neighboring Sergeant from Independence PD (IPD) Brad, as he has known me the better part of my life and knew I was a pretty good athlete.
I stayed with VVPD from 98-04 and decided to test at IPD. I was then hired on 8-11-04 and had to go through their entire field training program. I knew the job and all of the guys, as we were neighboring cities.
The FTO’s (Field training officers) liked training a guy that was not right out of the academy, and I knew the job, I just needed to know their system.
I was with IPD about a month and a half when I was involved in a shooting on a major highway in Northeast Ohio (I-77 North bound) and after 3 days being off we came back to work and I asked the guys, “What we are doing today?” I was told that I was getting tested on the map of the city in the morning and I should study all the streets. This is roughly the last thing I remember as it all gets fuzzy.
The date is now Sept 28th 2004. IPD is on 12 hour shifts, so either 6am to 6 pm or 6:30 am to 6:30 pm. I was on nights due to low on rank, and I was the “late car” (6:30pm – 6:30 am). When the day shift guys started rolling in the guys were saying “Hi” to me and I was told that I was like a zombie and not responsive to anyone (not like me at all). Then it was about 6:10-6:15 and the day shift Sgt. Brad told the night shift guys that we could go home and they would handle any calls.
Most of the night shift guys left and I was still in the squad room. I will tell you the rest of this only because I was told these months later.
I was standing in front of the squad room door looking at the many post of Officer training schools and stolen vehicle reports along with BOLO’s when I was asked my another patrolman, Jimmy Green, “How’s it going Jay?” I did not respond, and he asked me again, with no response. He then said jokingly, “I get it … you guys from the Valley are too good for us on the hill.” Again, no response. I was then asked by another officer, “Will you answer Jimmy when he asks you a question?” Again, no response. “Jay! Will you at least look at me?”
I was told that I turned around one time, then kept on turning a 2nd time then a 3rd, then eventually 5 times! They thought I was joking around, until I stopped, looked at them and my eyes rolled back into my head and fell straight back to the floor and wacked my head on the terrazzo floor. I was having a full grand mal seizure.
They said I came to, and had a look on my face like I wanted to kill them (Jimmy and the other officer that came to me as I was on the floor). Jimmy said I was stronger than he thought was possible (adrenalin) and then I went into another seizure. I came out of it and had that same angry look on my face but they said I had zero strength.
I was rushed to a local Hospital (Marymount) and then Life flighted to the Cleveland clinic. I was not diagnosed right away with PCNSL but about a week later Dr. Vogelbaum made the decision that I did, in fact have this diagnosis.
I was out of it for about 2-3 months, almost as if I had Tourette’s syndrome. I had no filter at all! I was swearing and telling everyone what I thought of them … good or bad! I also had no concept of time.
I had 1 full round of BBBD (1 treatment in the left femoral artery and the 2nd in the right) under my belt along with the infusion of chemo into my Omaya Reservoir that was implanted in my head.
I was newly married and it was our 1 year wedding anniversary on 11-8-04. We could not go anywhere real fancy, as I was not of sound mind. We went to a local Steak House and I told my now ex-wife Jen, that I was going to use the men’s room. I think I’m in there for maybe 30 seconds and Jen peeks her head in and asks if I’m ok. I tell her “Yes” and I’ll be right out. What I think is another 30 seconds, and she walks in the men’s room and says “Do you think it’s odd that you have been in here over 30 minutes?” My reply was “Do you think it’s odd that you are standing in a men’s room of a public restaurant?”
She leaves, and the next thing I know, my Sgt. Brad shows up with my assistant Chief, asking me, “What are you doing?” I tell them “I’m shooting baskets, and want to play?” Brad tells me that Jen called him and shared I had been in there for over an hour. I told him, “I’ll be right out.” He comes back in what I think is another 30 seconds and says I’ve been in there far too long. He’s a big guy, and he looked over the stall door at me, and asked “Have you gone to the bathroom yet?” I tell him, “No.” He asks again, “Are you sure?” I tell him, “Yes I’m sure.” He then tells me, “I hope you are right, because your pants are not even down.”
He told me to come out and I said “Ok”, but continued to just sit there. He then had to instruct me to “Stand up now!” “Grab the handle and turn it now!” He had to walk me through the simple steps of getting out of a bathroom stall.
I then go out to the dining area and the entire place is staring at me and the two officers and I began to yell and scream at the whole place. I was swearing and screaming like a mad man. Jen was crying and I was yelling at her, too.
That day she drove me to a church to see Dr. Issam Nemeh, a local “faith healer”. I walked into this church with maybe 30-50 people were there. They were standing in a line to see this man, and his wife along with a little Irish nun. As I watched him lay hands on these people, some of them would fall down and be caught by others and some would just walk away. I noticed that each person took about 2-3 minutes and then he would move on to the next.
It is now my time to get up to the altar and I start with my swearing and yelling, “This is all BULLSHIT! YOUR’RE ALL A BUNCH OF ASHOLES,” etc.
When I reach the 3 of them Dr. Nemeh was facing me and his wife was on his left (my right) and the nun was on his right (my left) and I’m being a complete disrespectful punk! His wife started to lose her balance and was saying “Something is going on with this guy!” “There is something happening here!” She kept grabbing on to me and losing her balance … I told Dr. Nemeh that he should work on this chick! “I’m fine compared to her!”
The wife grabs my face with one hand and tells me that I need to focus on the crucifix. I stopped swearing and carrying on, as Dr. Nemeh brought his hands up to my head. He said his prayers and after about 10 minutes, he opened his eye and said “You are going to be fine. Your brain tumor is gone.” I smacked him on the shoulder and said “OK DOC!”
As I walked back to Jen I saw all of her family and some co-workers there. They were all asking me what he said, and how I felt. I yelled “HE SAID MY TUMOR IS GONE! SO LET’S GET THE F@&K OUT OF HERE!!” The Little nun came running up asking me why I was there and I started swearing at her (not myself), and told her “This was a bunch of BS and you’re all snake oil salesmen.”
She asked Jen what was going on and Jen told her that I was just diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer with a very bad prognosis. “We didn’t know what else to do, so we thought we would come here.”
The nun then asked her what is special about today. Jen told her that it was our 1 year wedding anniversary today. The nun said “I knew a miracle was going to happen today and I know it happened to your husband. Take this rosary and pleased let us know what the doctor says at your next appointment.”
I went in for my next MRI and treatment and Dr. Peereboom came out with my MRI scans and he looked like he saw a ghost! He asked me how I was feeling and I yelled “Fine, GREAT!” (still very much out of it), and I then asked him how he felt. “You don’t look so good doc!”
He said he has never seen this before or heard of this before with my disease. He showed me last month’s MRI and it was all covered in tumor, and held it next to the one that was taken that morning and it was clear!! No signs of any lesion!
I continued with the treatments but after another month I woke up and told Jen, “I’m better.” She asked, “What do you mean?” I said, “I know yesterday I was messed up, and today I’m not. Just like that, some switch went off in my brain and I was back to my normal self.”
I had a very bad time waking up early from anesthesia resulting in me gaging and throwing up so many times, it actually led me to get aspirated pneumonia due to the vomit getting in my lungs. I chose to stop Chemo due to all of the issues and my MRIs were clear!
I then had vision issues from this disease and I went back to see Dr. Nemeh. When I walked in the room he looked at me, and after 3 years of seeing tens of thousands of people he said, “You’re the cop. I thought we got rid of your brain tumor. Why are you back here?” I was floored!! I told him it was in my eyes now and it’s like someone smeared Vaseline over my eyes. He had me sit down and he did his thing and I left.
Three days later I get a call from The VVPD cops to meet them for lunch. So, without even thinking, I jumped in the car and met up with the guys. When I got there they all asked me if I should be driving and as I was about to answer them my cell rang, cutting off my answer to the guys. It was the head of security for Dr. Nemeh and he said I just hung up with Dr. Nemeah. He said, “Call Jason Berger right this very second and ask him how his vision is doing? Call him right now.” I told the guy on the phone that I just was about to tell the guys that I used to work with that my vision is clear as a bell!!
My vision unfortunately turned bad again and I did end up getting radiation to the eyes but they wanted to do WBR on me. I refused. If there is one thing that I am, it’s being pretty witty. I never wanted to risk altering my personality for the sake of staying alive. If I’m going to live I want to live like me.
I then received a call just a few months ago from one for the dispatchers husbands (Joe) asking me if I knew anything about religious healing, so I told him my story and he was amazed. He asked if I still stay in touch with the faith healer and I have not. It’s been over 6 years since I saw him and I had no idea if he was still practicing or even alive.
He calls me right back and said there is a healing service this Sunday in Cleveland and asked if I wanted to go. I said “Yes, of course,” and we went.
I told Joe and Lucy that I would be shocked if this man remembers me after all these years and 100’s of 1000’s of people all over the world! I get up to him and he is being very polite, asking me how I’m doing, and then he looked at me in the eyes and said “HOW HAVE YOU BEEN?”
Lucy started crying and it was surreal that he remembered me! I then went out into the hall where his wife was (the falling down lady) and she too was very polite, and asked me how my service was. I said it was pretty good, and then she gets this look on her face of surprise … “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU ARE HERE!! I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE STILL ALIVE!!” She gave me a big hug and then took me over to this blind man that was there 9+ years ago at the first healing service. She said to him “Take a guess who is standing in front of you?” I shook his hand and his face lite up! “Don’t tell me … we were just talking about you last night … the cop … the cop with a rare brain tumor … Independence Police!”
I ended up doing an interview with him that is on some sort of web cast. I wish I could have stayed longer but I had to catch a flight to Chicago to see my Chinese doc Dr. Guo (healthriseing.com).
I feel great aside from the vision loss in my left eye and my memory is nowhere near what it used to be. I struggle with remembering things that I used to have recall on like no other. It’s frustrating to not be able to do the things I’ve done in the past, but I’m still alive and doing well. I did end up taking a disability from the Police job and now I try to travel as much as I can.
Unfortunately I was just thrown yet another curve ball 3 weeks ago. I developed these small bumps on the back of my left tricep and my girlfriend was really on my case to get them checked out so I did. The dermatologist took a biopsy and it came back positive for lymphoma, so I had a cat scan and that came back clear. Great news, but they lost my pathology to confirm if it is in fact lymphoma on my arm or not. I’m not happy about this as it’s been far too long to not have an answer!
Jason Berger