“An Unremarkable Man”, Jerry D. Kline, Pleasant World, Paperback 173 pps, ISBN 13: 978-1-4141-1565-8. Available through www.amazon.com and from the publishers Wine Press.

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Jerry D. Kline has entitled his new book about his brain tumour journey “An Unremarkable Man” but this reviewer believes he is anything but “unremarkable”. In fact, he is very remarkable and unusual, and probably untypical of most brain tumour patients.

Jerry is an American electrical engineer, who was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumour in January 2004 and is therefore a six-year survivor. He has been married to Kathy for 27 years and they have five children – the “Fab Five” – whose names all begin with the letter “A”.

His book is very readable and contains much useful information for the newly diagnosed patient and their family and caregivers. Doctors and nurses could also benefit from reading it, if only to learn what not to do and say as illustrated by some uncomfortable encounters with the medical profession.

Jerry Kline is a man of Faith and this book and his website (www.jerrykline.net) are seen by him as representing a Ministry to the brain tumour and wider communities. He lives his life and fights his brain tumour within the framework of a Bible-believing Christian. While Christian believers will obtain reinforcement from the book, non-believers will also benefit because there are many useful words of advice.

Books by brain tumour patients or their caregivers have blossomed in the past ten years. Like Jerry I read what few publications were available in the early years of this decade but now there is a much wider choice, at least in the English language.

We must remember that most people in the world who develop a brain tumour will never have a chance to read any of these books because at least 70% of the people with a malignant primary brain tumour like Jerry’s come from a less developed country where there are probably a minimal number of neurosurgeons, little or no radiation therapy facilities, and no access to expensive chemotherapies. American patients, with their access to the best standard of care, represent only about 11% of the total world population of these patients.

Jerry Kline would be well aware of these inadequacies because he supports abandoned children in the very poor East European country of Moldova and has travelled there several times.

Jerry is particularly good with analogies and descriptions and has a very expressive turn of phrase. For him the brain tumour is that “little degenerate”, “that perpetrator” and that “beast”.

He is determined to keep one step ahead and to be pro-active in his treatment:

“I keep copies of my medical records, building my own data warehouse. If I see a gap, I bridge it. If I find a hole, I plug it. If something is missing, I provide it. If I see a problem, I fix it. I work with the medical team around me, but I lead the charge rather than waiting for something to happen”.

 Monitoring the situation through frequent MRIs he attributes personalities to each MRI machine. One chants at him during set up and between sequences: “Don’t smoke, don’t smoke, don’t smoke”. He groups bursts of noise into patterns. Veins that refuse to make themselves available for the injection of contrast during the MRI procedure are called “covert veins”. Clean MRIs are a reason for a quite celebration, even a rewarding ice cream.

A Doctor who tells him that the tumour will invariably return and will kill him is called “Dr Kill Joy” and given short shrift. Throughout the journey he has placed God in overall charge.

He believes that the brain tumour has brought the family closer together. They share a passion for marching band competitions and Jerry also has a passion for chasing down a 1976 car, similar to the one he surrended when at College and which he now hunts for and buys and proudly drives and displays. He sees this as something positive and an affirmation, just as going to the dentist to have his teeth looked after is an affirmation that he is not going to die any day soon.

The book is replete with examples of what he does to counter any problems. For example, when he experiences a sudden rush of fatigue “ten extremely monster yawns will typically resolve this situation”. For some people that might also work.

His advice for taking chemotherapy tablets (presumably temozolomide) is sensible: “Eating right is crucial when taking chemo. Timing is what mattered, not the food consumed. I waited at least ninety minutes after dinner before taking the chemo, and I waited another thirty minutes or so after taking the chemo drug before retiring for the evening.”

He can laugh at himself and displays self-deprecation: “I charged into the radiation and chemo treatments praying, ‘Lord please make me as strong as an ox. My intellect often seems to mimic that of an ox, so could I please be afforded its strength and ability to run through obstacles?’.” Jerry also prays that he might be spared for another forty years and highlights how this figure features in many sections of the Bible.

But Jerry is not the only person praying for his well-being. Two days before his first surgery he receives a prayer pager which he wears on his belt. As a person prays for him the pager vibrates and the person’s zip code is displayed. Sometimes it is going almost non-stop and this generates a feeling of support from a mostly unknown army.

The book is well written and a very useful addition to the ever-increasing library of books that might help the newly diagnosed patient and their family to better understand and deal with the enormous challenge posed by a brain tumour

DS