Katie Wolf, Caregiver
My husband Bob Wolf was a very healthy, active man prior to his diagnosis. He was a runner, owned his own school bus after retirement, and loved “his kids.” He could do anything. If he didn’t know how, he found out how. He was hard working and hardly ever sat down, until Glioblastoma sat him down with no use of the left side of his body. He died on November 8, 2018.
It was late in the afternoon on April 26, 2018, that Bob came home from training with his running group. He said his left hand wasn’t working, but he never complained and hid his concern from me. Eventually, his mouth was drooping and he wasn’t talking well. We thought he was having a stroke. Me driving him seemed faster than waiting for an ambulance, but eventually, we had to pull over and call an ambulance. At the hospital, they didn’t find anything. They thought maybe he had a stroke sometime in the past that caused this, but things got worse, and a bit over a month later, he started having trouble walking. Eventually, after telling us it was just his seizure meds, his neurosurgeon agreed to admit him to the hospital to do an MRI. It was then that they discovered a 4-centimeter tumor and a biopsy confirmed their fears that it was indeed Glioblastoma grade 4. He was diagnosed and given an obvious grim outlook on June 26. That quickly, it went from nothing to a death sentence.
I didn’t find a lot of people who had dealt with this before to turn to. Mostly, I was finding people who wanted to talk about their relative that had brain cancer and surgery many years ago and was fine now. That isn’t the case with GBM so I really didn’t want to hear it.
Since my husband’s death, I have found that in Evansville, IN, where we live, there have been a very concerning number of people diagnosed and dying from GBM. It’s a horrible cancer to have come into your life, and what is sad is that a lot of people aren’t aware of it. They don’t know what a gray ribbon is for and they don’t know how prevalent it is. We need public awareness but even more, we need research to find a way to give patients more time and hopefully a cure. I personally know of 3 deaths from Glioblastoma in the past month. A mother of 3 young boys went into the ER with horrible headaches and died 3 days later. A bicyclist friend of my son died from it about 2 years ago. And a police officer’s wife just died in the past year after completing their beautiful new home. And that’s a small example, all of them here in my hometown. Ironically, one of my husband’s running buddies just died of GBM this year, both Bobs, both runners, both died at the age of 69.
My life was forever changed in those months during my husband’s illness and after his death. I’ve obviously focused on Glioblastoma and people who have it. I’ve made several friends through their diagnosis and continue to support them. I still have nightmares about it and miss Bob painfully everyday. But I’m stronger, my faith is stronger.
Of course my perspective has changed about what is important in life. Stopping the death sentence that comes with Glioblastoma and the loss of quality of life will always be my priority. I also really want people to be as aware of the meaning of the gray ribbon and any other color of ribbon as they are of the pink ribbon.
My heart goes out to everyone everywhere who has suffered this as a patient or as a person who loved them. There has to be a special place in Heaven for Glioblastoma families.
-Katie Wolf
