The Game On Glio Podcast

"It's hard when someone puts an expiration date on you," said Nick Adamski, glioblastoma thriver and one of our guests for episode 2 of Season 3.

Nick, with the support of his wife Diane (ABC7 Chicago News Journalist), has been beating the odds against glioblastoma since December 2020. Walking through this rare cancer is not pretty, nor is it for the faint of heart. When Nick and Diane sat down with us, he didn't hold back; paintin...

In this first episode of Season 3, we sit down with Dr.'s Elad Levy and Ken Snyder of UB Neurosurgery/Buffalo General Hospital and Gates Vascular Institute/Jacobs School of Medicine. They give us rare insight into the work they do, the cutting edge technology being used (including GammaTile Therapy now being offered) and even the emotional toll this field can take.

This season we are going to learn--together. "Navigate and Advocate...

Our guest today, Marie Alessi, is a celebrated author of the book "Loving Life After Loss" and podcast host of Upspiral Grief. Marie unexpectedly lost her husband and father to their two boys in 2018 to a sudden brain aneurysm. Using her own tools and strong intuition, she created a path back happiness and now shares that with others across the globe.

In our last episode of Season 2, Marie and I tackle the myths and peel back the m...

"I (insert name here) take you (insert name here) to be my lawfully wedded husband/wife. To have and to hold from this day forward. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death parts us."

Sound familiar? When we say those vows, we say them theoretically. As if we know that this is what we truly vow, it's what we mean, but we never expect to have to uphold some of them ...

    It's hard enough being a parent (at least from everything I witness and see). So, what do you do when you suddenly become a widow, grieving the loss of your spouse while also trying to help your grieving child?

Whether the loss is a caregiver, a parent, or even a sibling, a child that experiences loss is going to experience grief differently than we as adults do. Young children may not even understand what death means, or that ...

    The themes around Episode 9 will have us all reflecting a bit more this holiday season. You wouldn’t know it from the title, but we talk a lot about the act of forgiveness–what it takes to forgive. Not just in forgiving others, but forgiving ourselves.

The title, “Cancer isn’t a sniper shot, it’s a grenade,” is a loaded title. In my conversation with our guest, Dr. Randy D’Amico, he expresses how cancer isn’t a single shot, it ...

When you're mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience. Trying to be mindful while in the midst of grief can be challenging. However, learning to lean into it while also leaning into love, loss, and moving forward are part of being mindful in grief.

Finding a way to embrace ...

  I've been thinking a lot lately about my path, specifically, how I got here. All the pieces on the chess board had to move just so in order for me to arrive to exactly where I am today. The Universe has a funny and ironically dark way of pushing us in a direction; priming us for a duty, action, or journey that will require certain skills. Before Mike was diagnosed, I was doing part time radio hosting work outside of my "then" ful...

In episode 6 we sit down with Dr. John Ruge, a pediatric neurooncologist in Chicago, IL. His passion for finding better treatment options has led to his developing the app Medeligo Oncology. 

Dr. Ruge has worked with both adult and pediatric brain cancer patients and families. His philosophy these days is-- "When I walk in the hospital to meet with a new family that has just received the devastating news, I want the latest informat...

I think it's interesting that a protein in our bodies, that we develop when we are young and shuts off as we get older, that's labeled "Survivin" can actually be used to fight Glioblastoma and potentially other rare cancers. A protein called Survivin has the word "survive" in it. Isn't that thought provoking! It's like the Universe is giving us what we need to fight this deadly cancer.

Our guest today, Dr. Mike Ciesielski, is a co-...

When we think of loss--of the grief we suffer from it, we don't typically see grief as a strength.

Grief can either consume us or be used to shatter our fears and sadness and teach us a strength we never knew we had in us. In this episode we talk about the obstacles of moving through grief- the understanding and patience that is needed. Seeing the hope that floats up through our grief is a powerful tool, and our guest Dan Fischer t...

Being a front-line worker at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic is hard enough. What happens when you go from front-line work to patient? Episode 3 hears the story of Ian Youngblood, a 29 year-old nurse sent to NYC as COVID-19 started to ravage our country. He quickly went from treating others to being treated, but not for COVID, for a grade 3 Anaplastic oligodendroglioma--brain cancer. Three years later, Ian talks about that da...

We're taking a trip back to high school chemistry in this episode! The chemical compound H2S, better known as the gaseous chemical Hydrogen Sulfide--the one that puts off a "rotten eggs" smell, is found in many natural environment settings. However, did you know that Hydrogen Sulfide is produced in small amounts in our bodies? This over-looked compound has a variety of important physiological effects, especially as we age. Dr. Chri...

Harry Lorusso was diagnosed with GBM at just 33 years old. He said of his diagnosis, "No one changes when things are easy. The type of people my wife and I are today, we wouldn't have become without GBM."

A week after his diagnosis, he and his fiancé got married. A year later they had a son. And now they've started the Outlier Fund. Three years in and Harry is not only in "no evidence" phase at 36 years old, but he just ran 26 mile...

      It's hard to imagine that children can get the same cancers adults get. It's hard to imagine children get cancer at all. The unfortunate truth is, children do get brain cancer; between 200-500 children are diagnosed each year in the U.S. So, what is being done to help these beautiful little beings? A lot! Dr. Lindsey Hoffman, with Phoenix Children's Hospital, and Dr. Adam Green with Children's Hospital Colorado are both leadi...

Author Kristine Carlson is truly living her motto, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff." After the death of her famous husband Dr. Richard Carlson, co-author of the series Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, Kristine plunged into finding a way to walk through grief. In doing so, she broke open her heart, allowing the grief to work it's way through and eventually releasing her to a higher purpose and a fuller life.

In this video/audio episode, we...