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The wizard will beat brain cancer.
Joe Marchese was diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme in November of 2004. He is a much loved husband and father of three boys. He is tough and will fight this as hard as he can. If you or someone you love has this monster living in your family, please write us. we can give eachother strength and hope. Or just the proverbial shoulder.
Date: 3/2/2005 8:43:08 PM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 3244 times Friends and neighbors know Mattituck's Joe Marchese as a man who has supported actors, poets, dancers, writers, filmmakers, musicians and students throughout his career as technical director at the John Drew Theater at East Hampton's Guild Hall, as well as many other venues in and around New York City. But now the man who has been called "the Wizard of Guild Hall" for his seeming magic with sound and light needs some magic of his own.
Mr. Marchese, 46, is struggling with an inoperable brain tumor and undergoing radiation therapy to try to stop the tumor's progress.
While other families were celebrating the holidays, the Marchese family was struggling with the ramifications of the diagnosis that put Mr. Marchese in the hospital for 19 days. He has just completed radiation therapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital's Commack center and his wife, Lea, says it has "taken its toll." But her husband is "trying to keep his spirits up" with the knowledge that the radiation phase is now over.
Her husband's problems started with what Mr. Marchese experienced as a severe migraine headache during a poetry reading at Guild Hall. By the following morning, the pain was so severe, he was rushed to Central Suffolk Hospital in Riverhead and quickly transferred to Stony Brook University Hospital for emergency surgery to relieve pressure on his brain.
Now that Mr. Marchese's radiation treatments are over, he still has to have blood tests twice a week to track blood clots — one large one in his left leg and a small one in each lung — which he developed post-surgicaly
"These incidental conditions keep him from being as active as he would like," she says. At the same time, they await next Wednesday's appointment in New York City for a battery of tests that will detect the effectiveness of the radiation treatments.
Mr. Marchese will be resuming chemotherapy at a high dose, says his wife. He has been on small doses during the radiation, but now needs to start the high dose chemotherapy.
"The chemo is our biggest worry, as it is extremely expensive,It's $25,000 per treatment, and he may be on it for up to 18 months" says Ms. Marchese.
Responding to the need, friends have formed the Joe Marchese Benefit Fund to help the family pay medical bills and living expenses.
send checks to The Joe Marchese Benefit Fund, c/o Guild Hall, 158 Main St., East Hampton, NY 11937.
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