It has been ten years since I was diagnosed with breast cancer … And it has been ten years since I was cured of it in a 28-minute procedure I could watch.
Today, nothing makes me happier than seeing Ice Cure’s ProSense being sought after by hospitals and physicians who now have found an inexpensive, quick, painless cure for some types of breast cancer in some women.
What is yet to come to make my joy and respect for Ice Cure and ProSense even better, is even more approvals from the Food and Drug Administration which will enable doctors to use the procedure on younger women.
Ten years without cancer. Ten years without any chemo or therapy or anything else. Simply cryoablation for 28 minutes.
There is no doubt I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time … Freehold, where Radiologist Dr. Tomkovich was eager and well prepared to give cyroablation a try … Central State Hospital where the hospital staff and Women’s Center thought cyroablation was excellent enough to give it a trial. And I was also fortunate enough to be leaving on a trip to Israel with a group from Our Lady of Perpetual Help St Agnes parish two weeks after the procedure. So I could actually see the campus where this marvelous procedure was developed for breast cancer and personally thank the men and women who work there and made it possible for Ice Cure to come to the United States for trial.
I was proud to go to Washington DC to testify before the FDA last year as to the excellence of cyroablation, becoming a small part of the process which led to its approval. And I was honored a few months ago when these same wonderful ProSense people invited me to New York to be photographed in front of the mid-New York lighted billboard that promoted ProSense shares are now available on the Market.
Ten years. I’ve enjoyed ten years thanks to ProSense without cancer. Ten years of continuing to live an exciting and fun- filled life.
ProSense is the US commercial base of Ice Cure, that incredibly magical company in Caesarea, Israel that introduced cyroablation as a cure for breast cancer. Since it received FDA approval last year, it has soared 70 per cent in demand from leading hospitals and physicians across the country, and now has dedicated sales and marketing professionals in New York, Southern California and the Midwest.
Cyroablation is simply a minimally invasive liquid nitrogen-based technology that destroys tumors by freezing. The procedure, although successful in other countries for several years, underwent those years of trials in the United States that started with me in New Jersey a decade ago before it got sanctioned by the FDA last year.
Today, ProSense® systems at clinics and hospitals across the U.S. have been added, with procedures now being performed in major metropolitan areas across the country.
It was ten years ago that I had the choice of surgery, chemo and later therapy or being a cancer victim willing to try out this cyroablation. Dr. Tomkovich and the hospital staff felt it was well worth a try.
It was an easy choice to make and only took a few minutes to sign my name on the dotted line. After all, the hospital, the radiologist were putting their reputations on the line; for me, if it did not work, I would still have the opportunity for more invasive and painful means of curing my cancer. Besides, I thought, at 79 years of age, it would be a new and exciting experience! And I wouldn’t even need anesthesia!
Did I do the right thing? Was it worth the risk? Am I grateful? Was it worth putting my faith in a doctor I did not know, a hospital where I had never even been a patient?
Let me put it this way: In the past ten years, I have seen and visited homes and businesses where my son and his wife have made a difference in their lives and the lives of others in several states;
I have seen my independent daughter who never owned a house become the owner of one in Florida and another in New Jersey;
I have been thrilled watching my retired Naval officer daughter helping every kid at MAST on Sandy Hook become a smarter, more mature adult and then saw her retire last year with mixed emotions … loving the leisure but missing the cadets.
I have seen my grandson graduate college, be Commissioned and Officer in the United States Navy, earn his Wings of Gold as a helicopter pilot in that same Navy where both his parents also served, serving with Marines like his aunt and uncle had been decades before.
I have seen my grandchildren marry, I’ve welcomed half a dozen more great grandchildren, I’ve moved from Freehold back to the Bayshore which will always be home. I have been honored by the Monmouth County Judiciary for my volunteer work as a mediator, and by the Daughters of the American Revolution because I admire and praise their hard work and what they stand for.
I have been down in SSN-796, the New Jersey, long enough to know I do not ever want to be a submariner but will always respect them.
I have traveled to Cuba with friends twice, stood on Jefferson’s Rock in West Virginia, and taken Amtrak cross country.
I have researched and learned so much more about Medal of Honor recipients, especially after Congressman Chris Smith was able to retrieve a Medal and return it to its rightful family in Freehold as well as play a role in getting recognition for the Medal of Honor recipient who served as a light housekeeper at the Twin Lights museum in Highlands.
I have met with Congressmen, Senators, the Governor, other state leaders, judges and noted historians and authors. I wrote two more books and a pamphlet on the ghost in my son’s home in Mississippi. I have been fortunate to work with real patriots whose Fins for Freedom day of fishing means so much to military and veterans.
I have visited numerous cities from Vermont to Georgia seeing up close what they offer and all the while learning more about a country in which I had already visited all 50 states.
I have written millions of words and thousands of stories that both delighted and agonized hundreds of thousands of readers in more than 150 countries. I have accepted their complimentary remarks. I have often wondered … but always appreciated … why those who wrote vitriolic comments about some stories even bother to read me.
And best of all, in those ten years, I have kept old friends, made new ones, helped others in little ways, and been able to tell some whose own fears of cancer have discouraged them: the disease is terrible, the name is frightening, prognoses is individual and not all endings are not always happy. But meeting it head on, taking chances, and continuing to enjoy life might make it all easier.
For me? Thanks so very much Ice Cure, thank you Ceasarea, Israel for your outstanding operation, thank you ProSense for working so hard for approval in the United States.
Can’t wait for the net ten years of excitement, thanks to your work a decade ago.
ProSense
ProSense ProSense ProSense ProSense ProSense
