IN MY SHOES: What It’s Like To Be Diagnosed With A Fatal Brain Tumor
In response to people wanting to know “I first realized I was suffering from a brain tumor and what I have done about it” syndicated columnist Bob Novak wote about the events that led to his diagnosis – as well as the schadenfreude and sympathy that came his way:
The first sign that I was in trouble came on Wednesday, July 23, when my 2004 black Corvette struck a pedestrian on 18th Street in downtown Washington while I was on my way to my office.
I did not realize I had hit anyone until a shirt-sleeved young man on a bicycle, whom I incorrectly thought to be a bicycle messenger, jumped in front of my car to block the way. …
Fortunately, the investigating officer, P. Garcia, was a policeman who listened and apparently believed me. …
Officer Garcia's justification in believing me was soon confirmed by the diagnosis of my brain cancer, in which I have lost not only left peripheral vision but nearly all my left vision, probably permanently.
Over the course of the next several days, Novak kept getting lost while driving, had trouble finding the office he’s rented since 1964, and had several seizures. Diagnostic imaging detected the mass on his brain, and a biopsy confirmed a Grade 4 – terminal – tumor:
In answer to my question, the oncologist estimated that I had six months to a year to live.
Being read your death sentence is like being a character in one of the old Bette Davis movies.
I believe I was able to withstand this shock because of my Catholic faith, to which I converted in 1998.
Dem political consultant Bob Shrum asked Vicki Kennedy to call Novak, and she urged him to have Allan Friedman, chief of neurosurgery at the Duke University Medical Center, remove the tumor; he had also operated on her hisband, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA). Minutes before he went under the knife, Novak got a call from President Bush.
Novak marvels: “I had thought 51 years of rough-and-tumble journalism in Washington made me more enemies than friends, but my recent experience suggests the opposite may be the case.” However, there was one notable exception to the outpouring of concern and prayers:
Joe and Valerie Wilson, attempting to breathe life into the Valerie Plame “scandal,” issued this statement: “We have long argued that responsible adults should take Novak's typewriter away. The time has arrived for them to also take away the keys to his Corvette.”
Editorial Note: For some strange reason, the version of this column published by The Washington Post and other papers omits any mention of the statement released by Wilson and Plame the day after Novak’s accident. They apparently have not issued an apology or a follow-up statement acknowledging Novak’s “dire” diagnosis (video). No doubt the Wilsons are looking forward to dancing on Novak's grave.
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