Joe, Olivia and Noiella Caruso Joe and Olivia Caruso received the best Christmas gift ever on Dec. 18, 2012 — the knowledge that for the first time, Joe’s inoperable brain tumor had regressed, showing signs of shrinking.
“We didn’t need a flight home from Duke University Medical Center. We could have flown home on our own,” Olivia said, recalling the joy and hope that consumed the couple when they heard the wonderful news that improvement had been seen on an MRI.
Dr. Joe Caruso, a physical therapist, and his wife, Olivia, a registered dietician, own and operate Caruso Physical Therapy and Nutrition in Allentown.
It had been the couple’s dream to open their own practice. Despite Joe’s diagnosis of an inoperable malignant brain tumor in September 2011, they went ahead with their plans, moving their opening from November 2011 to February 2012 as Joe underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
The Carusos, who celebrated their business’s first anniversary on Feb. 13, will hold an open house on Feb 22 from 5-7 p.m. at their office at 1278 Yardville-Allentown Road, Allentown, to thank those who supported them during tough times.
“We are hoping to personally thank everyone who has been a part of this journey with us,” Olivia said, adding that their patients are “amazing. I can’t say enough about them. They have been wonderful.”
Olivia said she and Joe have built a family within their practice, and their patients have helped them to achieve that.
“They have given us the strength we have needed to keep on fighting,” she said. Olivia said she and Joe have established a common bond with the patients, who can relate to the couple.
“They see us as patient and as caregiver,” Olivia said of her husband and herself. “And they know we understand what they have been through or are going through.”
Olivia recalled that many people thought they were crazy to go ahead with the plans for the business after Joe was diagnosed with brain cancer. But she insists that going ahead with their dream of providing physical therapy and nutrition in a family environment was the best thing they could have done for Joe and for their family, including their daughter Noiella, who is almost 3.
A positive attitude, spiritual practice, fitness, along with a fierce passion for the work they do, has been effective in keeping the couple and the business going, and going strong over the past year.
The Carusos are looking to add another physical therapist. Their staff is comprised of three aides, Andreanna, Michelle and Olivia’s mom, Kathleen, along with a physical therapist, Richard Roscoe, who takes over while Joe is in North Carolina for his check-ups.
Joe’s situation began in October 2006, when he had emergency surgery for a benign brain tumor. Olivia said doctors were not able to remove the entire tumor.
After surgery, Joe had to relearn many things, such as how to walk and talk. He had to have regular MRIs to monitor the tumor, which she said was growing, but not at an alarming rate.
In September 2011, things changed when doctors determined that Joe had inoperable brain cancer. He began six weeks of daily radiation and daily chemotherapy followed by a series of chemotherapy cycles at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.
The chemotherapy was not having an effect on Joe’s tumor, which continued to grow even more aggressively than before treatment, according to Olivia.
By the time Joe was getting ready to start his eighth cycle of chemotherapy, they had a follow-up with his doctors in Philadelphia.
“We asked his doctor if he would do anything different. The doctor said we couldn’t change course. Joe and I left the meeting devastated,” Olivia said.
After much research, Joe and Olivia determined that Duke University in North Carolina had the best options for Joe.
“Doctors there said they would do something different, so we switched our care to Duke immediately. Our new treatment plan is a metronomic daily dose of a type of chemotherapy called Temodar. Joe receives the drug every day, as well as an IV infusion of Avastin every two weeks at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in Hamilton,” she said.
Joe has a brain MRI every eight weeks, and then the couple flies to North Carolina to meet with Joe’s oncologist.
“We recently went for our first followup at Duke after his first eight weeks of new treatment, and they actually saw some regression in part of the tumor that is toward his frontal lobe,” Olivia explained.
Joe’s treatment will most likely be indefinite at this point, she said, adding that if he responds well to this new treatment plan, they will continue the same treatment for a year. At the end of the year, they will then do a PET scan to determine how much cancer is still there, and make a new plan based on the results.
Olivia admits some days are more difficult than others.
“There have been a lot of tears in this house,” she said. “We are very careful to remain positive, but we are also realistic. We get upset. We get sad. We get scared. I have related going through cancer to a saying about raising a child — it takes a village to make it through the trials cancer presents.”
She said family and friends continue to help.
“We wouldn’t be able to fight this cancer and build this amazing clinic without them,” she said, adding that she and Joe are “two testaments to the power of prayer and staying positive.”