www. Char l es tonPhys i c i ans . com | www.Hea l thL i nksChar l es ton . com | 103 And, though she spent two days in bed following her first round of chemotherapy, she carried on with her previously laid plans to move from the West Coast to the Charleston area. Three weeks after leaving the hospital, she flew to South Carolina – with Lindsey’s help – met with a real estate agent and bought a house in Mount Pleasant. She returned to California for another round of chemo and another MRI, which revealed that the largest lesion was shrinking. She had graduated from a wheelchair to a walker but still needed help getting out of bed and getting into and out of a car. “I couldn’t do anything by myself,” she said. In early August, barely three months after being diagnosed with PACNS, Greenberg’s brother, Scott Pressman, accompanied her on a flight to Atlanta, then she flew with daughter Lindsey to Charleston. Her parents arrived from Chattanooga to help out as well. Greenberg’s fight to regain her old life included physical therapy three times a week, where she worked to reclaim the ability to complete what once were simple, everyday tasks – like getting out of a chair, walking and sitting on a toilet. “My head knew what to do, but my body wouldn’t follow,” she remembers, pointing out that she also had a loftier goal in mind: to walk the length of the Ravenel Bridge. By October 2017, Greenberg had traded in her walker for a cane, and, surprisingly, she also passed another major hurdle in her journal back to normalcy. An MRI showed that the lesions were gone, a situation that even drew a “wow” from Scott Lindhorst, M.D., who specializes in neuro-oncology and brain and spine tumors at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Lindhorst couldn’t guarantee that the lesions wouldn’t return, and he didn’t know for sure what caused them, though he told Greenberg that the culprit could be stress. He was certain of one thing, however. “Your dog saved your life,” he said, and Greenberg noted that he told her she was only the fourth person he knew of who recovered from PACNS. “That dog can have steak for the rest of his life. He can shit in my house if he wants to,” Greenberg exclaimed at the time. Unfortunately, Hershey passed away in February 2021. Not long after receiving the news that the lesions were no more, around Thanksgiving 2017, Greenberg achieved the goal she had set for herself. Without the cane but holding onto the railing, she walked halfway across the bridge and back. By the following February, she was able to cover the entire bridge in both directions, an excursion of 5.4 miles. “I paid for it the day after,” she stated. By March 2018, she was back to work in her hypnotherapy practice though she was wearing a wig because she lost her hair during the chemo treatments. She’s down to one MRI per year, from four, and she is on medication because she had a seizure in 2021. “It scares me not to be on it because I live by myself,” she commented. Greenberg’s situation has continued to improve, both medically and professionally. Her book, “Roll On to Victory – What it takes to break free from what’s holding you back to start living life on your terms,” is scheduled to come out in May 2023. But always, in the back of her mind, is the thought that the lesions could return. “When I had my first seizure, my life changed. I had a new normal. My old normal didn’t exist anymore,” she mused. Her defense is the same message she imparts to her hypnotherapy clients: “If anything stresses you, just walk away. Does it bring you joy? Does it bring you happiness? Does it serve a purpose? If not, walk away.” Back - left to right: son-in-law Brad Crowe, daughter Lindsey Crowe, parents Judi and Irvin Pressman and brother Scott Pressman. Front – Pam Greenberg and daughter Sydney Greenberg. Pam Greenberg with Eric Zollars, M.D., one of her doctors at the Medical University of South Carolina.
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