Cancer survivor Kevin Osterloh uses motor scooter to get around La Grande. The Observer/DICK MASON

Kevin Osterloh’s handshake is not as strong as it once was.

However, his power to inspire those in seemingly hopeless situations is soaring.

Osterloh is a cancer survivor, one whose rapid improvement in recent

months may have doctors questioning their original prognosis.

A 2006 graduate of La Grande High School, Osterloh was diagnosed with an inoperable malignant brain tumor in April 2007 while living in Bend.

“My doctors did not think I was going to make it,” said Osterloh, 20. “They said that I was going to die. That it was terminal.”

Today Osterloh is making it – and then some.

The tumor on his brain stem is less than half the size it once was, having shrunk from 4.8 centimeters to 2.2 centimeters. Osterloh is doing so well that today he leaves

La Grande for Medford where he will attend the Anthem Bible study school program.

Osterloh will be picking up where he left off. He was attending the Anthem program in Bend when diagnosed with cancer.

His initial symptoms were painful but did not unduly alarm him.

“I had these terrible headaches and just wanted to sleep all the time,” he said.

He went to a doctor in Bend who ordered a CT scan. A tumor was detected and a biopsy conducted. The tumor was found to be malignant.

Osterloh took the news in paradoxical fashion.

“It was not like I was sad. I was kind of in shock,” he said. “I didn’t know what to feel. Emotion-wise there was this sense of peace. The only way I can explain it is that it was God’s peace.”

Doctors told Osterloh that the tumor was inoperable because it was located on his brain stem.

“Operating on it would cause more damage,” said the son of Mary Osterloh and Russ Osterloh, both of La Grande.

Surgeons did insert a shunt into Osterloh’s brain to reduce swelling by draining fluid into his stomach. The procedure took a toll, one he is still recovering from.

“Right after surgery I was in terrible shape. I had lost all coordination and strength on my right side,” Osterloh said.

He was confined to bed and needed a wheelchair to get around. It would be more than a month before Osterloh would be able to move about on his own. His right side remained weak. A right hander, Osterloh had to begin doing everything with his left hand, including writing.

Today Osterloh’s right hand remains weak, making it harder for him to do things he loves like playing the guitar. Still, his right hand is getting stronger and Osterloh believes some day it will be 100 percent.

“Then I will be ambidextrous,” Osterloh said with a bright smile, one on a face seemingly untouched by the ravages of a cancer battle.

A year ago, however, Osterloh’s face bore striking evidence of a confrontation with the dreaded disease. His face had ballooned to at least twice its normal size and he had gained 45 pounds because of steroids taken to reduce brain inflammation. Osterloh was taken off steroids in June of this year and since then the bloating of his face has disappeared and his weight has fallen to near its normal level.

Osterloh went on a regimen of radiation and chemotherapy treatments about two months after being diagnosed. He was on radiation for 1 1/2 months and on chemotherapy through July of this year.

The treatment reduced the size of Osterloh’s tumor to 3.6 centimeters by May of this year and to 2.2 centimeters by August, according to MRI scans. Osterloh is due to have his next MRI scan around November.

Since being taken off chemotherapy Osterloh has been on an alternative natural treatment plan recommended by a friend. Osterloh believes it is making a difference. So too, he believes, is someone from above.

“God has had a big hand in it (the recovery).”

Osterloh began receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatment about two months after he was diagnosed. It followed a family decision on what course of treatment to seek.

In retrospect, Osterloh said he and his family would have been more aggressive in getting the treatment started earlier.

“We did not know what to do,” he said.

Today Osterloh is well enough not only to attend Bible school but to play Frisbee golf, fish, ride a motor scooter and more.

Osterloh also writes and records songs he shares with people on his iPod, numbers he shares with people to inspire them.

“I want people going through trials not to give up, to have hope,” he said.

One song he has recorded, with the help of his friend Andrew Crosswhite of

La Grande, is appropriately titled “Hope.” Its lyrics include the words “I know you can move these mountains away.”

Osterloh emphasizes repeatedly that he would not be able to get where he is now without help from many who have reached out to him. They included members of the Faith Center church in La Grande and the Four Square Westside Church in Bend.

The many people in La Grande who have stepped forward to help include Mark and Maxine MacDonald.

Nobody, though, has done more for Kevin than his mother, Mary.

“She has been my strength,” he said.