This blog was created to keep people updated on my fight with cancer. If this is your first visit, please be sure to read the archives listed on the right side of this page.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Australia - Part 1
We arrived in Brisbane, where we met and spent the first 5 days with Adrian and Margaret. Adrian was my best friend in Margate. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons I did so poorly in grade 12 is because Adrian and I would often leave school after lunch and go hang out at his house, or down by the beach. For my parents sake, I am saying that it was always Adrian's idea (sorry Adrian.) :-)
One of the amazing things is that after 30-some years, when we met again, it was like we had continued to be mates the entire time, and I remembered why I always liked hanging out with him. Adrian and Margaret showed us a great time and were fantastic tour guides. Even though Roni had never met them before, all four of us got along so well it was as if we knew each other our entire lives. We are hoping that someday soon they will come visit us in New York so we can show them American hospitality.
Some of the highlights of hanging with Adrian & Margaret is visiting the Australia Zoo, started by Steve (Crikey!) Irwin. Seeing the Glass House Mountains. Camping at Borumba Dam. Driving along deserted beaches for miles and miles. And I mean literally driving ON the beach! And getting together with friends from high school and the church we used to go when we lived there in the mid 70s. We also had meat pies and introduced Roni to Tim Tams, Lamingtons and ANZAC biscuits.
Thank you Adrian and Margaret for making our trip even more special.
Clinical Trial Consult Went Well
The only bad news, which isn't really "bad", is that I will not be able to have the macrobead surgery this Friday. We were hoping I would be able to have it, to get it over and done with, but the surgeon is not available this week, and the OR is not available next. So surgery is now planned for Friday, June 18th.
Since we live in the Bronx, they will want us to stay in the Helmsley Towers, near the hospital, the night before the surgery, because the surgery is done early in the morning. They said they will also want us to stay the night after "just in case". The good news here is that all of that is paid for by the clinical trial. No out of pocket expenses for us at all.
Physically, I am doing OK, but I still have this pain in my left ribs. It seems to be getitng worse. The pain seems to begin in the left ribs, but it radiates out to my lower back, left arm, shoulder, etc. The PET/CT scan showed some tumor in that area, near the kidneys, so we are assuming that is what is causing the pain. The docs have prescribed Oxycontin and Oxycodone (Percocet) to help with the pain. The Oxycontin is supposed to last 12 hours, but it only lasts half that, if I'm lucky. The Oxycodone helps take up the slack of the Oxycontin, but after a few hours, that wears off too. So now it seems I am either in pain, or knocked out with narcotics. I am seeing a doctor who specializes in dealing with pain on Monday, June 7th, so I am hoping he can get to the bottom of this, help alleviate the pain, and do it without me being doped up on drugs.
Other doctor appointments I have coming up is one with the doctor who did the radiation in Jan/Feb of this year. I see him tomorrow morning, at which time I will let him know the radiation did no good whatsoever. And next Wednesday, I meet with the surgeon who will be doing the macrobeads insertion. It seems like my life revolves around medical tests and doctors. I guess being part of a clinical trial, I better get used to that.
Well, that's the medical news for now. As things progress, we'll keep you updated.
Kevin
Sunday, May 30, 2010
"Funny, You Don't Look Jewish"
According to Jewish Law (Halakhah), Jewishness is passed down through the mother. My maternal grandmother (Sarah Zitnick) was born into a Jewish home. Both her parents were Jews from the Ukraine. They came to America in the early 1900s. My grandmother was born in Chicago, which made her the first American in her family. She had an older brother, my Uncle Al, who was born in the Ukraine.
While the family was observant when they came to America, it did not last long. The story I heard was that they sent for my great-great-grandmother to come to America. When she got here, she was refused entry because she had an eye infection (probably something like "pink eye") and had to go back to the Ukraine. Either on the way back, or shortly after she got back, she died. This was hard on my great-grandmother spiritually and it was because of this she declared, "There is no G-d." From then on, the family, while keeping Jewish traditions, would certainly not be considered very observant.
An event happened when my grandmother Sarah was a little girl that sparked her curiosity about religion. It was around Hannukah/Christmas time and she brought something related to Hannukah for Show & Tell. Afterward, one of her classmates came up to her, slapped her, and said, "You killed Jesus." This stunned my grandmother because she didn't know who Jesus was, and she was pretty sure she hadn't killed him. She went home and asked her mother who Jesus was. Her mother slapped her and said, "Never mention that name in this house again." Sarah was slapped twice for someone she didn't know, had never met, and certainly never killed. But this did make her start to wonder who this "Jesus" person was.
After high school, she met and married my grandfather, Ralph Wooding, who was not Jewish. This did bother some in her family, and I heard that some of her family would not even walk on the same side of the street with her. But since she was not religious, marrying a gentile was not a big deal for her and her immediate family. Sarah and Ralph went on to have three children, the oldest of which was my mother.
When my mom was about 13 or so, my grandfather decided it was time they start going to church. There was a small church down the street from them, and within a few months, they had all become believers. At this time, in the 1940s, when a Jew came to believe that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, it was accepted practice that they forsake their Jewish heritage and culture and culturally become Christian. And so my mother and her family all became "Christian", even though according to Jewish law, they were still Jewish by birth (except for my grandfather). And because my mother is Jewish by birth, then so am I (and my siblings).
Now for my dad. My father, Earl Kersey was born in a small town in Oklahoma called Oilton. He joined the Navy in WWII and served in the South Pacific. He was hoping to make the Navy a career, but contracted TB and was given a medical discharge. He felt G-d was calling him into the ministry as a Southern Baptist pastor. For some reason, he had always had a love for the Jewish people, even to the point that he prayed that G-d would give him a Jewish wife. In the 1950s, he went to a small Baptist college in Southern California, where he met... you guessed it, my mom. My mom had decided to go to the college because her boyfriend at the time said he was going to go there. He never did, but she met my dad there, and they were the first couple to be married in the chapel of California Baptist College.
While her Jewishness was never a big deal for my mom, it was for my dad. When I was in my early twenties, my dad told me about a man named Zola Levitt, and a movement called "Hebrew Christianity". This sparked something in me to learn more about my Jewish heritage. In my studies, I learned of Messianic Judaism, which had evolved out of Hebrew Christianity.
Hebrew Christianity began in the 1800s as Christians of Jewish birth began to believe that accepting Jesus did not mean they had to deny their Jewishness, and that believing that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah was in fact, a very "Jewish" thing to do. Messianic Jews took that even further and believed that not only was it Jewish to believe in Jesus, but that it was incumbent upon them to retain Jewish religious traditions and cultural identity. They started referring to Jesus by his Hebrew name, Yeshua.
As I learned more about Messianic Judaism, I felt this was the path I should take. Even though I was raised "Christian", I believed it was the right thing for me to reclaim my Jewish heritage and began living as a Jew. Instead of observing Christmas, Easter, etc., I now began observing Passover, Rosh haShana, Yom Kippur and the other Jewish holidays.
I met my wife (Roni) at a Messianic conference and we were married under the "chuppah"at a Messianic synagogue. We go to Shul (synagogue) Saturday mornings and observe the Jewish holidays. When I was in my 40s, I finally had my Bar Mitzvah.
And that is why a man named Kevin Patrick Kersey is very much a Jew. I know some in the Jewish community will not accept this, but my beliefs are between me and G-d, not me and the Rabbis, and they are the result of extensive study. And that is why, even though my name is not Jewish, I am a Jew.
If you would like to understand the foundations for my beliefs, I would encourage you to read some position papers that my Rabbi has written. You can find them here:
http://bethelnyc.org/category/theology
Friday, May 28, 2010
Clinical Trial Testing - Part II

So all the tests are done. We are now just waiting to meet with the doctor to discuss results. We also need to meet with the doctor who will be doing the bead insertions. If all that goes well, next week at this time, I should be full of macrobeads, and resting comfortably in a hospital bed.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Clinical Trial Testing - Part 1
First I had my blood drawn. I think they took about 7 pints of blood. And I never exaggerate.
They also took nasal and saliva swabs. Did a EKG. Tested skin for any allergic reactions to the mouse cells, and noted all of the vitals (weight, height, temp, blood pressure, etc.)
Next steps will be a chest x-ray and CT/PET scan on Wednesday.
Hopefully we will know by the end of the week what the results are, and if I will be a candidate for the trial.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Clinical Trial Update
Next week I will have my blood drawn for lab work, and for a chest x-ray and a CT/PET scan. Next I will meet with the surgeon who will be doing the macrobeads insertion. If everything looks good, I will probably have the surgery on June 4th.
I don't know if I mentioned this before, but for the past couple of months, I have been having a pain in my left ribs. It seems the pain is hitting some nerves, so the pain radiates through my lower back, left shoulder and arm. It has been pretty consistent and steady for awhile now. Sometimes tolerable, sometime excruciating. My oncologist prescribed Oxyocodone for me, which helps a little, but wears off after a few hours. Plus I'm not crazy about taking all of those drugs, but it's the only thing that gives me some relief. The pain also keeps me up at night, which means I need to take Ambien to help me sleep. All of that did effect me on our trip to Australia, but we still had a great trip, and I'll talk about that trip in another post.
As the clinical trial progresses, I'll keep you all updated as to how things go.
Kevin
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Freedom of Spirit
One of our stops was in Charters Towers Australia, where I lived from 1973 to 1976. In Charters Towers, we met an Aborigine artist, who remembers my family from when we used to live there. She was only a little girl at the time, so I don't remember her, but we have become Facebook friends and have kept in touch that way for the past year or so.
While visiting Tania, she presented Roni and me with a painting she did. One of the things with Aborigine paintings, is that they always come with a "story", and Tania always seems to find the story of her paintings after she paints them. She said she did ours in about 3 days, and after finishing it, she "saw" the story in it.
Below is the painting, and the story:

Freedom of Spirit – Berrenge Nahn (pronounced: Berren-gay Narn)
For Kevin and Roni Kersey
The central and inner circles represent the journey.
The two dots in each corner, represent the 2 of you as you ride along together.
The smaller circles at the bottom and at the top represent the wheels and the journey to and from your destination.
The smaller dots dark brown and yellow ochre represent all the beauty that you have witnessed as you look in every direction, as far as the eye can see.
The blue background represents fresh air and wind “May all your travels happen beneath clear blue skies.”
The yellow dots represent the sun on your face.
The white dots signify safety and security.
The dark brown around the outer edges represent the road under your wheels.
The three inner red circles represent the sun set at the end of the day.
The black and orange dots represent your beloved Harley Davidson.
Artist’s Name: Tania Ault
Lore Name: Dillinga (Silver Brogla)
Clan Name: Mgulakai Pronounced: Mul-a-ky (Sun Light People)
Tribe: Kudjala/Gudjal
Home Town: Charters Towers, North Queensland, Australia
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Macrobeads - Part II
If I am accepted into the clinical trial, the items you see on the left are the macrobeads that will be inserted laproscopically into my abdomen. The doc said they will use a few hundred of them.We spent about 2 hours this afternoon with the doctor and person working on this project and it sounds fascinating. Fortunately there is no big rush, so we have time to process, pray and enjoy our vacation.
We'll keep you updated on how things proceed.
Kevin
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Macrobeads
Then, she gave us another suggestion that sounded worthwhile to explore. There is a clinical trial being done by The Rogosin Institute where macrobeads containing mouse kidney cancer cells are implanted into the abdominal cavity as a biological treatment. They are implanted during an laproscopic surgical procedure, so the recovery shouldn't be that bad. The good thing is that since this is NOT chemo, there are no side major side effects. The only side effect that she mentioned was an elevated temperature because your body is working harder to fight off the foreign objects.
You can read more about the trial here:
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00283075
I have to make an appointment to meet with the doctor doing the study to find out if I'm a candidate, but if I am, it's certainly something worth considering. When I know more, I'll let you know.
Until then, Roni and I continue to get excited about and plan for our two weeks vacation in Australia. And no, I am not going to eat any Vegemite.
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Why I Ride
I think some doctors think it is their job to keep you alive as long as possible, regardless of your desire to live life. While I respect what he meant, that is one piece of advice I am not going to take. Let me tell you why...
I ride because it makes me feel free.
I ride because instead of being surrounded by metal and glass, I am surrounded by nature.
I ride because I can smell the fresh air. Feel the wind in my face. Feel the warmth of the sunshine.
I ride because I have an unobstructed view of birds flying. Of deer and geese on the side of the road. Of trees, grass and wild flowers. Of a beautiful sunset.
I ride because of the camaraderie of other bikers. Of being able to strike up a conversation with a total stranger who understands without having to have it explained.
I ride for the simple joy of giving the "biker wave" to fellow bikers going in the opposite direction and being given the "wave" back.
I ride because I love seeing the smile on little kids faces as they look at me and wave frantically to get my attention.
I ride for the adventure. For the joy it gives me.
I ride to see new places. Small towns. Creeks and rivers. Forests and trees. Open plains.
I ride because in a strange way, it makes me feel nearer to G-d.
I ride to feel alive.
For some people, an explanation of why I ride is impossible to comprehend. For those who ride, an explanation isn't necessary.