Sent to us by Julia Schopick, widow of a brain tumor patient. Posted 1/06 (Ann Fonfa knows this woman personally) I am hopeful that my hard-earned experience as the wife and caretaker of a most extraordinary 15-year brain tumor survivor will spare some people on this list from the pain and devastation resulting from non-healing incisions. SOME BACKGROUND: My husband, Tim Fisher, was a 15-year brain tumor survivor when he died this past November at the age of 56. At the time of his death, he had been severely brain injured for 4 years, as a result of an incision from a 2001 craniotomy that would not heal and became horribly infected more times than I can count. During his 8-month hospitalization (2 four-month periods) for these complications, Tim endured many bouts of cranial fluid leakage, numerous infections, the placement of several external drains, and approximately 5 extra operations – all in futile attempts to get the incision to heal. None of these “standard-of-care” interventions worked. (It is important to note that Tim had not been brain injured directly following the surgery.) However, because the skin on his head was so fragile -- both from previous radiation and so many surgeries -- the incision kept opening up, leaking and becoming more and more infected. As time went by, he became progressively – and visibly -- more brain injured. Tim’s doctors and I feared his skin would never heal, and that he would die. I was terrified and despondent. Thankfully, through a professional colleague, I finally found a product that healed the incision site and halted the infection and cranial fluid leakage. It literally saved Tim’s life. Unfortunately, by the time I found this product, his brain injury was irreversible. In April, 2002, Tim finally came home, severely brain injured. He couldn't walk, sit up on his own, read, or remember much at all. He was incontinent. All that was left to him were his ability to speak, his enjoyment of classical music, his sweet temperament and his amazing wit. For the first time in his life, my once-happy husband was miserable. (As you can probably tell, he was the love of my life.) I am writing to tell you about the product that finally healed Tim’s incision -- and to see if, through this list, we can find people with non-healing incisions (with or without cranial fluid leakage), who would be eager to try this product. I want to stress that I am not a doctor, nor do I have any ties whatsoever, financial or otherwise, to this product or to the company that manufactures and distributes it. I am just the extremely grateful wife of a man who was given 4 additional years of life, thanks to this product. I only wish I had found it earlier. The product is called Silverlon. It is an innovative type of wound dressing that is FDA-approved for ALL wounds, and is often used for severe burns and non-healing diabetic wounds. After Tim’s skin had not healed for 8 months, I found out about Silverlon through a doctor I know professionally, who had been stunned by the results of using it on his diabetic patients’ non-healing wounds. I was extremely lucky that Tim’s neurosurgeon agreed to my using it on Tim’s non-healing incision, while Tim was still in the hospital. When he came home, we continued to use it on our own. The day we put Silverlon on Tim’s incision was the last day his skin leaked. It was also the first day his head began to heal – even though his skin was, by then, extremely fragile as a result of previous radiation, innumerable incisions, infections and external drains. Tim’s incision never opened up again. Please read about our miracle in the article I wrote that was published by the National Brain Tumor Foundation in their newsletter not long after Tim came home. The article also contains a description of the product and how it works. http://www.braintumor.org/pservices/pdfarchive/03searchw.pdf I wrote the article, hoping that our experience with Silverlon would save other brain tumor survivors from going through the horror and misery that Tim went through. Indeed, after reading this article, many relatives of brain tumor patients called me, telling me of similar incidences of non-healing incisions their relatives were experiencing. They wanted to try the product, so I emailed them information to show their doctors, and in a few cases, even asked the company to do me a favor and send them the product overnight. To my dismay, many doctors were skeptical about trying Silverlon, because they had not heard of it – even though it has FDA-approval for healing all wounds, and even though they had not been able to heal these patients’ wounds by the “accepted” methods. So far, to my knowledge, Tim is the only brain tumor patient who has ever benefited from Silverlon. I hope to change this -- I want some good to come from Tim’s suffering. If you, or anyone you know, would like to try this product, you may contact the company (www.silverlon.com). In addition, if you contact me by email (JuliaS1573@aol.com) and provide me with your phone number, I will be more than happy to talk with you privately about Tim’s and my experience with Silverlon -- as well as the protocol we used, which I feel was responsible for the success Tim experienced. Again, I want to be clear in stating that I am NOT a doctor, nor am I connected in any way -- financial or otherwise -- with the company that makes Silverlon!) Again, please see my article (link is above) for a more complete description of what the product is and how it works. Thanks so much for reading the article about our experience – and for helping me to spread the word so that other brain tumor patients will have an opportunity to turn non-healing wounds into healing wounds – and thus, to avoid subsequent unnecessary suffering. Many thanks, Julia Schopick Wife of Tim Fisher 15-year survivor of an Astrocytoma 3 3-13-49 to 11-8-05 JuliaS1573@aol.com Posted January 22, 2006 various groups and LINKS Source: City of Hope website Results: Synthetic Scorpion Venom & Brain Tumor Cells Brit J Cancer, 11/03 Clinical Response: Glioblastoma Multiforme w/Dendritic Vaccine J Pham & Exp Thera 11/03 Phase I Study 9-tetrahydrocannabinol & glioblastoma multiforme Cannabinoids and gliomas Intl J Rad Onc, Bio, Phys, 10/03 J Cancer Cell, 9/04 Neurosurg Focus, 11/04 References & Reprints on Compression for Brain Tumors/VTE Mol Cancer Ther, 4/05 Naturopath's Suggestions for Glioblastoma/Gliomas LINK to extensive information on conventional/alternative therapies for Glioblastoma/gliomas LINK from Princess Margaret Hospital Patient Education resource LINK to law firm-run center Society of Neuro-Oncology Annual Meeting 11/06 Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski Clinical trials/Houston, TX 9/02 Update on Trials w/Antineoplastons March 16, 2004 Clinical Trial Results Antiumor Effect Antineoplaston AS2-1: Colon Ca Patient Perspective - Stage IV Breast Cancer Susan Zimmerman, artist, cancer survivor Targeted Therapy w/Antineoplastons - Gliomas PRESS RELEASE, May 9, 2007 National Brain Tumor Foundation ASCO 2007 Press Release Neurology, January 2008 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. 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