Peter Black > Quotes

“A brain tumor can radically change your self-identity. Even if your tumor is removed and you are doing well, you may continue to see yourself as someone who is very different from other people.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“Once you have a diagnosis, you must make several important decisions—not just regarding your treatment, although those choices are most important, but about your work, your finances, your family responsibilities, and the way in which a brain tumor will affect your perception of yourself and your relationships.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“If you’ve recently learned that you have a brain tumor, keep this in mind: You are a statistic of one.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“Some patients choose not to pursue treatment out of a sense of denial about the tumor. They may think, “Maybe they’re wrong. Why take these risks associated with treatment? I don’t want to put my family through this and my insurance won’t cover it.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“My strong opinion is that you should continue on with life as normally as you can, no matter what kind of tumor you have.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“Vestibular schwannomas constitute less than 5 percent of all brain tumors.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t. —Scientist Emerson M. Pugh”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“The brain doesn’t feel pain.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“Bigger May Be Better The size of a brain tumor may not matter nearly as much as where it’s located. You may have a very large tumor that is benign and can be taken out readily, or you may have a very small tumor that is much more difficult to deal with because it is pressing on a delicate area such as your optic nerve, the nerve in your brain that affects your vision.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“there is always hope; some people always do better than the numbers.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“People sometimes ask what it’s like to be a surgeon who works with the living human brain each day. I think sometimes it’s like being Harry Potter—a wizard who has at his command such wonderful technologies as an MRI machine that lets us image the tissue as we remove the tumor, or a global positioning system that lets us navigate through the brain, or an operating microscope that magnifies objects forty times and lets us do very precise surgery. More often, however, it’s like Frodo Baggins in Lord of the Rings, trying to fulfill a quest against an unknown evil, surrounded by friends and working teams and helped by a little magic. You often feel vulnerable and frightened, despite a brave exterior.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“Having a brain tumor is like finding yourself in the middle of a dark forest. You’re not sure how you got there, and you don’t know how you’ll get out.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“Second and third opinions can be valuable, but don’t spin your wheels and lose time by getting ten opinions. Talk with two doctors and maybe three (as a tie-breaker); then do something. Going from institute to institute can take its toll both in terms of time and energy. Try to make a decision and go with it—and believe that you have made the best choice possible.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“The people you’ve always relied on, the ones you always believed would be there no matter what, may suddenly seem unavailable.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“You do see different responses. Some folks might search the Web and all of their contacts, and go from center to center to see which clinical trials might be available—looking for the best possible treatment. Others withdraw in the face of this diagnosis into a depression. A lot depends on their underlying personality, their inner strengths and resources, and social support from their family and friends.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“As Sheryl Shetsky says to other people who are fighting brain tumors, “Don’t try to get back to who you were then. This is likely a new and improved you in many ways; moving on is the way to go.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“There is a difference between seeing the world and being in it, which is one point that alludes most people.”
― Peter Black, From my Front Porch

“The discovery of a brain tumor is a life-changing event that happens quickly, and for most people there is a surreal quality to the experience, even after a decision has been made about the best course of treatment.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“Try to find a medical center that has a finger on the pulse of the latest treatments both nationally and internationally.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“For all brain tumors, definitive diagnosis can only be made by surgery with pathological examination of tissue. MRI or CT scans or other images may suggest the tumor type, but they are not definitive.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment

“Second and third opinions can be valuable, but don’t spin your wheels and lose time by getting ten opinions.”
― Peter Black, Living with Brain Tumors: A Guide to Taking Control of Your Treatment