Guerilla Guide to Brain Tumors: Shameless Dirty Tricks to Beat the System and Stay Alive!

By Skip Goebel

In an unprecedented format, the Guerilla Guide to Brain Tumors is written in a format that combines the layout of the For Dummies series with a drill-sargent's attitude.

(the back page says it all)

This is a book of War

Nothing warm and fuzzy or socially acceptable here and nothing about "Dying with Dignity". Just what it takes to win. And win you will, complete with a trail of wreckage behind you. It's a book for the patient, NOT the caregiver.

The Guerilla Guide to Brain Tumors is a book that will take you out of the "Grovel and Wretch" mode and into the "Command and Dominate" mode with the following factions of our society:

The Medical Establishment The Social Services EstablishmentChurch, Friends and FamilyAnd most importantly…Yourself

No punches are pulled here. Prepare to be shocked, experience uncontrollable bursts of laughter, learn gut-turning remedies, gain the motivation and grit to dump friends and family, intimidate social services employees, access top medical care using the most unethical tactics…and the list goes on.

If you want to die in peace, read another book. If you want to live in pain this book not only shows you how to manage pain- but use it.

Some people can take a punch while others would rather fold and die with a smile on their face, but then again-

Dead people don't win wars.

Only the living count.

Now available in Kindle and Audible see preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHsCL6H_HOA

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 26, 2007
• ISBN: 9781467818377

Skip Goebel

As a veteran of 3 brain surgeries and two full rounds of radiation, Skip Goebel has gone from less than a year to live to tumor free and a bright future. Google his name to see where he is today. Born in Thousand Oaks, California to a family of lion-tamers and a excessively fearless mother, Skip and his two brothers were raised with the sink-or-swim philosophy. Growing up on a ranch, he learned to shoot and drive just like all his friends and yielding to an obnoxious animal or other scary situation was often rewarded with a butt-blistering. Those experiences proved to be his salvation. Finally, becoming a Christian in 1992, a direct line with God served as his perfect guide in a dark and stormy night. But the testimony isn't warm and fuzzy... Once he became baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, his life became extremely difficult. Previous health symptoms got worse over the next few years and financial and social aspects did no better. By the end of 1993 blackouts and convulsions were commonplace and the insurance-fed doctors didn't have a clue. Finally, a semi-violent confrontation with a neurologist landed him an MRI and virtually the next day he was on the cutting table with his first brain surgery. The diagnosis was an ependymoma tumor attached to the base of the Medulla which meant easy access but impossible to completely remove. A few years later, as he was dying from a guaranteed lethal dose of radiation, Skip attended a healing crusade. Oddly enough, Skip was passed over by several preachers who were healing those who came forward. Later, when he asked why they ignored him, one preacher told him "We started to, but God told us he had other plans for you." Thus began his journey…. Skip Goebel is alive and mostly well as of March, 2019. Many surgeries Later, he is re-releasing the book in Kindle and audible. More importantly, he is awaiting a clinical trial of Focused Ultra-sound treatment which is exactly what the new book by John Grisham is talking about. God loves those who persevere!

Book preview

thorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2007 Skip Goebel. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author. First published by AuthorHouse 10/22/2007

ISBN: 978-1-4678-1837-7 (ebook)

Preface

It’s a damn shame.

90% of the people who get cancer in America are Blue-Collar.

90% of the people who get advocacy and treatment are White-Collar.

And, it’s a damn shame that a country that could afford to supply the latest and greatest medical equipment to virtually every hospital for the simple price of a single submarine or aircraft carrier or a few years financial support to countries like Israel…

…Would rather see a family bloodline wiped out for lack of support and care. And that care to the very men and women who donned a uniform or built a bridge or harvested the food that we take for granted.

In effect, there is a quiet civil war going on between the classes, and much like holocausts of the past, life is too full of convenience for anyone to make a serious issue about it.

That is, until now…

Forward

That poor fucker’s dead!

I’d been told I was going to die before but I had never heard it quite like that. Those words turned out to be a turning point in my life and I have to thank the doctor (the intern at the hospital that said it.)

I had been told by an angel who showed me my tumor on a scan to get to my doctor and check it out. (Better fix this, he said).

Previous scans had shown the tumor but it had not been noticed by the doctors. After getting my good oncologist (a fine Christian man) to go along with my whim and recheck my scan, he had a friend at the hospital look at them and his friend had 9 interns studying with him that day. They all saw the tumor and the one doc that made the comment did not realize that they were mine as I was standing there.

It was my first real experience at fighting and guerilla tactics. You see, two things had just happened:

I had dressed in a suit and tie and just discovered the art of camouflage (they thought I was the doctor).

The other thing was that I had to make a quick decision to believe the angel and stonewall the doctor. And, in my mind, rise above it all and respond.

My response was simple. With a smile on my face, I looked at them all and said that poor fucker’s me.

Since then, I’ve kept the tokens from all the different docs that have given me a fatal prognosis and I keep a box full of their different happy-pills and steroids as my trophies.

The Labrat that lived

13811.png

CONTENTS

PREFACE

FORWARD

FORWARD

THE BRAIN TUMOR WARRIOR MANIFESTO

2 POLITICS

Why me?

3. TYPES OF BRAIN TUMORS

4. PARTS OF THE BRAIN

Battle Map

Inside the Bunker

5. MEDICAL TEAM SQUAD BUILDING

Choosing Squad Members

Choosing a Doctor

Arming yourself

Saturation Carpet Bombing

Choosing a hospital

Meeting with Doctors

Inoperable?

Overall

6. MANAGING YOUR LIFE

Medical Records

Reference books and resources

Timelines

The ‘Idiot Factor’

Advocates

Computers and Online Banking

Things to Expect

Long term

7. TREATMENTS

Star Wars Weaponry

Surgical equipment

MRIs and scans

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)

Medicines/Drugs

Drugs

Herbs and Chemicals

8. DIET

When to eat

What to Eat

What NOT to Eat

The 7 Deadly Sins

Foundation of Health

Amino Acids

9. THE PHYSICAL END

Physical Therapy, Professional

Physical Therapy, Personal

Peripheral Neuropathy

Feeling Good: pH

Fighting fungus and molds

10. THE MENTAL END

Attitude

The Depression Demon

Anger

Cognitive dissonance

New Age…not!

Out in public

11. PAYING FOR IT

The social services nightmare

Dealing with Social Security

Dealing with Medicare

Dealing with Medicaid

Using the Freebies

Trial Programs

Suing Government Employees

12. SELF-DEFENSE

Tactical and Logistical Approaches

13. PARTING SHOT

14. GLOSSARY

15 ADVANCED TACTICS (HOW TO)

Perpetual air filter and cooler

Modeling Board

Worlds greatest soap

13820.png

Forward

Reader Beware!

This book is a patient’s book. Usually, books on cancer are written expecting the reader to be a caregiver. However, in this case, a silent majority (the patient) is being addressed and if you are a caregiver prepare to be offended again and again.

This book is meant for the blue collar worker.

There is a lot of warm and fuzzy books on cancer already out there but they are meant for those who work in air conditioned offices, have some degree of financial security and at least a good high school education. Most often, the reader is a caregiver and not the patient.

Yes, white collar people get cancer but the vast majority of victims are blue collar. This disease will never be beat until the victimology that prevails among the privileged classes is replaced with the dramatic numbers that will come when the working classes are recognized.

I spent three years working at a Coast Guard boot camp and was exposed to a psychology that is failsafe, fair to all and consequences for all actions are assured. Further, every week I would watch some boys fold while others would morph into a human that would not accept failure and was focused on the goal of overcoming all obstacles. Those that folded invariably came from white collar families and were told all their life that nothing was really their fault, they would always get another chance and of course, they had a ‘condition’ that could be managed with a little blue pill.

In short, they had never faced anything with extreme consequences that only they them selves would be able to get out of.

On the other hand, the guys who breezed through or even seemed bulletproof at times were the street-tough, working-class or even the sons of military fathers. They were already preconditioned to pain and physical distress and for the most part kept their head on their shoulders and could face a difficult challenge.

The psychology of boot camp works and so I take the bold challenge of trying to apply it here. Everything is reality based with as little compromise as I can manage. I try to follow the adage of if you don’t have an audience, you don’t have a problem.

Brutal? Well, maybe. But years of military, working construction and mechanicing has shown that a shout or even a whack upside the head is what is needed to keep someone’s attention once in a while. A whimpering plea simply will not work with some people and if you are working class, and especially if you have the totally logical mind that often comes with a brain tumor, you will appreciate this approach.

This is a point that a caregiver will never understand.

If there is anything I am going to apologize about for this book, it is the fact that I took over 6 years to write it. I really don’t have a good excuse. Physically, I have been able but mentally, it has been just one damn monkey on my back after another.

That’s a common scenario for someone who chooses to put his life above all the conveniences of life that us modern Americans think we have to have in order to make life worth living. Most folks won’t face a mortality challenge experience until they are quite old, and by the time they are old, have the bucks to have access to the medical miracles available in today’s world.

But the fucked up reality of it all is that it is the younger and poorer generations that have to deal with cancer. More specifically, brain tumors.¹*

And, I might mention here, if you’re knocked on your ass by a four letter word, you won’t stand a chance of beating your brain tumor. Little shit like cussing shouldn’t even faze you considering how tough your upcoming fight with cancer is going to be.

Perhaps cussing is also a vivid example of the different issues between patient and caregivers. So many ‘medications’ you (the patient) might receive wont really do you any good at all. Rather, they supply a degree of convenience for those around you. I refer to them often as ‘happy pills’.

The Brain Tumor Warrior

Manifesto

I am evolution.

I am the progenitor of the species.

I will overcome afflictions and thus

dominate nature.

For mankind!

Has the ability to conquer all things

in the universe

…and eventually will.

I will overcome this pitiful handful

of rogue cells and,

Thus imprint in my genes yet

another element that cannot affect

my species.

As an organism under stress, I am

blessed.

I have been given the opportunity to

move to the top of the food chain.

For it is not the healthy or the

normal that maintain a species

or move it forward — they are but

the end result and nothing more of

those who went before them and

conquered adversity.

It is adversity that I face and yet I

will not flee,

But I will dominate and use it as a

tool to make my species stronger,

faster, and resistant to adversity

itself

And when the battle is won, I will

have the glory of being celebrated in

history as

the first,

the adventurer,

the conqueror.

And in being celebrated,

I will live forever.

Yes, I am blessed. Thusly,

I move to the top of the food chain.

13845.jpg

And in this achievement

I glorify The Creator.

2. Politics

This book is not for the meek or easily offended. It’s for people who value their survival over just about anything else. It offers tools and tactics to accomplish those goals, written from front-line experience by someone who has been there and back, and has succeeded.

An excellent book, written in a manner less offensive than this one is called Making Miracles Happen by Greg Smith.

WHY ME?

First, you need to know what your tumor is and where it comes from.

The fact is that you were not born with it. You do not have bad DNA and God doesn’t hate you. Instead, you were poisoned (in most cases) by society. A society that craves comfort as cheap as it can get it.

In a sense, you have been mugged by society. Society is living in comfort at your expense. And your value has been deemed very cheap!

Thus, you owe society nothing but a kick in the groin and taking your wallet back.

When you have a majority that consumes more than it produces, then there has to be sacrifice. Somebody has to pay the ultimate cost and balance the equation so the rest can live in undeserved comfort.

Put another way, you caught a stray bullet from someone who was irresponsible, greedy and self-centered.

If you are blue collar, then it was YOU:

Who worked in the poisoned atmosphere.

Who picked the fruit/vegetables.

Who made the paint

Who refined the oil.

You were in the military, exposed to countless toxins or even radiation.

You welded the steel beams in the power plants, malls and hospitals.

In general, YOU are the one with the dirt under your fingernails.

-And it was that dirt that somehow got into your system, made its way to the brain and caused a disturbance. Be it corrupted genes or who knows what, but when it happened, the brain reacted in the only way it knows how:

Containment.

Much like the mole on your skin, your system tried to stop a runaway process of cell growth by basically throwing a sack around the problem.

Now, this point is important:

Tumors of one sort or another are a lot more common than you think. 190,000 people a year have a diagnosed brain tumor. But if you were to do a head scan on everyone in the U.S., you would find 10x to 20x more people with some kind of abnormal growth in their head.

You just got lucky and got diagnosed because you knew there was a problem and got a doc to check it out.

Countless people have crashed their car, died in their sleep, gone crazy and killed themselves, languished in prisons and the list goes on…

Autopsies are not done on everyone so we will never know. Even more, many times a brain tumor is healed or grows so slowly, that it takes fifty years or more to get noticed and even more still, it is often misdiagnosed.

So the point here is, if you’re around things that give you brain tumors, you might just have one and never even know it.

Now study that last statement and consider it good news.

You are in the same category as 10% of the population. Just because you got diagnosed with a brain tumor does not mean you have some sort of a timeline now. In fact, there is a possibility that it may even go away on its own.

In the post-2000 era, a brain tumor is considered a manageable condition. Unfortunately, all the advocacy, support and (due to the protocol system) treatment is aimed at the money. In other words, the Caucasian, middle class, white collar and up are whom you will see at the surgeon’s office.

And therein lies both the problem and the answer.

The problem is the accountant, lawyer, office manager, etc….says why me? Thinking this is always supposed to happen to the other guy and in a sense, he/she is right. (Not to mention, self-centered and audacious).

For every accountant out there getting cancer, 20 more farm workers, truck drivers, painters, etc. get it too. Put another way, for every priss out there driving a Mega-Whomper SUV, there’s an SUV builder with cancer. And it doesn’t stop at our borders.

Many died along the way in the harvesting of the resources and fuel for that SUV.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

So………..

The answer to the white-collar question of Why Me? is simply:

Because.

Because it’s you who are in a position to make a difference.

Because it’s you who can afford to go to the doctor.

Because it’s you that has the pull with society’s leaders and can make a change for the better.

And… And, because it’s you, who are least likely to get a brain tumor/cancer and in everybody’s mind, NOT supposed to get it, that God has chosen.

You, Mr./Mrs. white collar, have been saddled with the responsibility of making a change, fixing the problem, uplifting your fellow man.

To ignore such a calling is beyond selfish. It makes you a stain on the gene pool, which must be eliminated in order to continue the human race.

But then again.

If history repeats itself as it has countless times over, it will not be the white collar or even the priestly classes that defeat tumors and relegate them to the back ranks of disease and conditions. Malaria, polio, diabetes, bad teeth, flu, and the list of conditions goes on; that man has defeated or at least has learned to manage, were all overcome by The least of Me.

We all owe our lives to the caveman with a cold that turned his why me into a NOT ME and lived. Odds are, he wasn’t the top dog in his tribe, either.

So we come full circle back to…

The answer to the blue collar question of why me is simply:

Because.

Because it’s you -who is tough enough to take it. (You are already used to adversity)

Because it’s you -who are motivated. (You don’t have time to whine).

And, because it’s you who have the hardest road, the toughest battle and all the odds stacked against you-

Who will glorify God the most. So, the final step to be taken is:

Motivation

Even though you were unwillingly drafted, you are in a war in which there is no truce, no surrender, only survival.

You comrade, are now a soldier.²*

You must fight to win, fight to live and even fight for the survival of the human race.

You will fight without rules, without mercy and even fight without concern for collateral damage.

To do any less means you will be coming out the assend of a worm.

Thus, as Jesus said, …the greatest become the least and the least become the greatest. And the meek will virtually inherit the earth.

We all must get past the why me phase or we will all be riding the guts of the worms.

To find that motivation, you are going to have to remove the blinders of acceptance and replace them with your 20x-power scope of ANGER.

Anger will provide you with both fuel and focus. Develop a rage against your enemy (the tumor) and kick its ass!

And do it daily, forever. Attack it and never let up.

Remember — you were the one who was living peacefully when you were attacked, beaten, raped and robbed in the middle of the night.

Finish licking your wounds and show the miserable fuck what you are really made of.

9201.png

QUESTIONS FOR STUDY/DISCUSSION

13854.jpg Consider/discuss the differences between a ‘good’ attitude and a ‘winning’ attitude.

13866.jpg What ‘IS’ the difference between ‘fighting’ cancer and ‘FIGHTING’ cancer?

Example: maintaining a good attitude, stay home, take pills and accept whatever the insurance will pay for. Vs. mortgaging the house, traveling and getting at least 4 separate opinions, taking herbal therapies, working out every day and removing yourself from ALL stressful and toxic environments.

13873.jpg Do those around you have that silent attitude that think; it’s only a matter of time?

Make a mental list of those who do. It is imperative that you separate yourself from these people!

13879.jpg Make a list of everything in your environment 510 years back, even longer that possibly causes brain tumors. Then, compare with your current environment.

13885.jpg One of the hardest things you must do now is to evaluate your goals. A BT changes everything.

Do you really need to finish college now or would you rather follow a dream like riding a Harley all the way to Alaska? Missionary work perhaps?

13892.jpg Do you have a hobby?

Working alone on something you enjoy can give you a little mental vacation and hopefully isolate you from stupid people who ‘just want to help’.

13897.jpg Along those lines, be prepared for a constant stream of unasked for advice and stupid comments like ‘’if you get a job at Wal-Mart, they have good insurance’’ or advice about some miracle herb someone saw on an infomercial. Get used to shutting down those conversations at the end of the first sentence.

13907.jpg To finish the previous points, try to identify who you are talking with. If someone has first hand information and experience with your condition, then that person is someone you should pay close attention to.

13912.jpg Do you have any experience with boot camp? Maybe a college team sport?

Try to remember the discipline and sacrifice required from each individual and how no one stopped what they were doing so they could pay more attention to your ‘’feelings’’.

Try to develop the same grit in your battle with your BT. Playing the victim and begging for sympathy will surely get you streaming out the ass-end of a worm…

…Think about it.

3. Types of brain tumors

Brain tumors are generally classified as primary or secondary tumors.

Primary tumors are tumors that begin in the brain and the brain sees it as an abnormal growth or invader. What the brain does is try to encapsulate it with a sac and keep the bad cells from connecting with good ones. Primary tumors are generally slow-growing and usually easy to de-bulk or even remove all together. Almost all brain tumors fall into this category. These tumors can be referred to as benign.

Secondary tumors are cancer cells that start elsewhere in the body and now invade the brain. They are fast-growing and aggressive. These types of tumors are usually referred to as malignant. Fortunately, these types of cells can often be easy to destroy and can be killed quickly with radiation or chemo. It is important to not waste a minute of time when dealing with these types of tumors.

Benign

Non-invasive. Usually slow-growing and encapsulated. Easily removed if accessible. Can morph into Metastatic over time. A wart is a type of benign growth.

Metastic, metastasize

Invades other cells. Usually fast-spreading. This is caused by damage to genes that normally function to shut down a cell that has any abnormality. Thus, a bad cell can duplicate and spread the bad genetic message, acting like a spreading rash. Metastatic cells are very weak and can be killed by radiation or chemicals while normal cells that surround can survive.

Moma

Pronounced mow-ma; a cluster of abnormal cells in which the brain defends itself by encapsulating or containing with a thin membrane. This membrane is similar to the lining of a yolk on an egg.

Glioma

A Glioma type tumor begins in the glial cells. These are the cells that are supportive or act as a surrounding membrane to other brain cells. These are the most common types of tumors and include the following:

Astrocytoma

Astro (astrocytes are cells that that look like little stars and are nerve-type cells.

Cytoma (cyst type cells)

Can be anywhere in the brain, usually in the frontal lobes or cerebellum. It is the most common CNS (central nervous system) tumor and is a slow-growing, cyst-type tumor. If caught early, surgery can completely remove. Stereotactic radiation is a viable option also.

In children they haunt the fourth ventricle and even extend to the brain stem. When the cells reach a grade 3, these types of tumors are referred to as anaplastic astrocytomas. When the reach grade 4, they are referred to as glioblastoma multiforme.

14629.jpg Often develops a malignant tumor inside of the mass of growing non-malignant cells.

14637.jpg Also a good candidate for Gliacite type radiation.

Brain stem Glioma

These occur in the lowest, stem like part of the brain.

The brain stem controls many vital functions and thus many doctors are afraid to mess with these. They will classify them as inoperable. Ignore them and find a doctor who can do the job.

These tumors are generally considered high-grade astrocytomas and can be knocked down easily with stereotactic radiation. There may be certain types of chemo that will work too.

To sum up the point, these are difficult and dangerous tumors to deal with. They will require constant monitoring for the rest of your life.

Oligodendroglioma (Oligo-dendro-glio-ma)

This is a tissue that is interwoven with nerve and memory cells as a structural tissue like your bones hold your body together. These cells are called Oligodendrocytes. They can be in any lobe. These tumors are slow growing, non-invasive and usually easy to completely remove. Usually in middle age, but can be in children too. Complications can arise after