Introducing the Players

Since I always enjoy having a face to go with a name, I thought I'd provide a picture of the folks who have expended a large amount of time and energy trying to keep me around this past year.  

The gentleman in the first photo is my oncologist, Dr. Lawrence Flaherty. 

In this next picture, my brain surgeon, Dr. Mittal is standing to the right of me.

 The woman pictured on the left is his PA Karen Nichols - a woman very integral to both him and me.  

This way you will still recognize all of them (even if you don't recall their names) when you see them depicted in an article sometime in the future when they are interviewed about Peggy Tomaszewski Studzinski - this woman from Detroit who managed to outlive all typical time frames for people with stage 4 brain cancer.

Ah yes, notice the maiden name.  I didn't just gain the stubborn Polish attitude via thirty some years of marriage.  I possessed it before hand at a full 100 percent.   My mother was a Kosinki,  Her mother was an Ostrowski.  My father's mother was a Surbinski.  Shall I go on?

Final tidbit:  My radiation team - Peter and Claudia were also Polish.  This fact was quickly established when they pronounced my last name as "stew-jean-ski" when they called me back for treatment.on the first day of my whole brain radiation.

Anyway,  I am unsure whether the Polish heritage is a factor or not.  I'll leave that to the writer of the research article for crazy long cancer survivors to speculate over.  Whose to say why three to six months has become a year? 


I'm going with my new word to self-describe:  It's because I'm pertinacious.  FYI: It is defined as dogged - persistent - obstinate - tenacious.  Hhhmm, sounds like a stubborn Polish woman to me,  but one with a load of prayers backing her up.  Thank you for those.