Mission complete: marathon man runs race of a lifetime

Citizen Airman, Dec, 2004 by Gerald Sonnenberg

It was a steamy July day in 2003, and the heat radiated from a tennis court where two men were competing. In the middle of the match, one of the men, Brian Kissinger, fell to the court's hard surface, his body soaked with perspiration. His tennis partner, a paramedic, called 911, and an ambulance rushed the Air Mobility Command major to the hospital at Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

Doctors stitched a cut in Major Kissinger's scalp. As a precaution, they ordered a computerized tomography, or CT, scan of his brain. What was first thought to be a case of heat exhaustion soon became a fight for life and death for the 35-year-old husband and father of three young daughters.

The scan revealed a tumor "the size of a baseball," Major Kissinger said. Suddenly, his previous bouts with headaches and memory loss made sense. A sister had died of a brain tumor as a young child before he was born. Now, barely a month into his assignment at Scott AFB, he was facing the possibility of a similar fate, without the comfort of his family, which was still in Charleston, S.C.

Major Kissinger, an Air Force Reservist serving a controlled tour as a Reserve liaison on the AMC staff, spent eight years on active duty and then served as a traditional Reservist at Charleston AFB before accepting the Scott AFB assignment. Having had no chance to relocate his family, he had to tell his wife, Priscilla, and daughters, Alexa, Gabby and Belle, about his illness by phone.

"Like with any life-threatening illness, it was frightening," Major Kissinger said.

In good health, up to that point, and very athletic, the major said he cried at the nearly overwhelming thought that he might die. A navigator, he was also saddened at the prospect of not being able to fly again. For comfort, he turned toward his faith and went to the base chapel to talk to a chaplain.

Doctors recommended surgery and chemotherapy. But because they believed the growth in Major Kissinger's brain was a stage two, or slow growing, tumor, doctors said immediate action wasn't necessary. He decided to wait until September to give him enough time to move his family to Illinois and get everybody settled.

"The separation made it more difficult, but the ER docs and staff at the Scott hospital were great," Major Kissinger said. "They performed all the pre-surgery tests and treatments. The actual surgery was done at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis in mid-September."

Major Kissinger motioned with his hands as he talked easily about the procedure. With a thick head of hair, it's difficult to see where a large incision over his right frontal lobe was made to expose bone that was removed to give surgeons access to the tumor.

"They stitched it all up and put in titanium screws with mesh," he said.

The surgery confirmed what doctors had suspected--that the growth was a stage two tumor. Major Kissinger began a chemotherapy regimen. Thankfully, he said, doses are low and in the form of a pill. Every six months he undergoes a precautionary MRI scan.

"I'm in cycle eight out of 24," Major Kissinger said. "Five days on (medication), 23 off. And every month they take a blood sample to make sure my white blood cell count is all right. If it's too low, it can indicate something is wrong."

Early on, when he was in the hospital while doctors were diagnosing his condition, Major Kissinger decided that no matter what happened, he didn't want to sit around feeling sorry for himself. Before his youngest child was born, he had run a couple of marathons. Even though that was 10 years earlier, he decided he wanted to compete in the 2004 Air Force Marathon at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, which was scheduled for Sept. 18. He started practicing for the event by following a beginner's regimen for marathon running.

"This included a long run on Sunday, then two or three training runs during the week," Major Kissinger said. "And I had a couple of days of cross-training in there, too."

By the time the marathon was about 100 days away, the major was running 25 to 30 miles a week. He increased the mileage as the race got closer.

A month out, he ran a 33-mile "ultra" marathon, which, he said, "took a toll on his knees." At that point, he exchanged long runs for more low-impact cross-training.

In addition to improving his health, Major Kissinger said his exercise routine improved his state of mind. Also helping in this department was a growing list of runners--current and former co-workers, both military and civilian--who were assembling around Major Kissinger to raise money for the American Brain Tumor Association.

On Sept. 15, less than three days before the event, Major Kissinger woke up in an ambulance after his body's seizures had awakened his wife. His doctors determined that a chemical imbalance had caused the seizures, so they adjusted his medication, which took care of the problem.

Two doctors said it was OK to run, while two other doctors and his wife didn't want him to compete.

Being this close to his goal, he couldn't quit. So, with the help, support and encouragement of friends and family, he made it to Wright-Patterson and the starting line wearing a "Brain Guy" T-shirt emblazoned with the the words "Exercise is Terminal Wellness." People he didn't know were holding up signs of encouragement.