With cancer anytime you get good news and are smiling proudly something comes along and kicks you where it hurts and puts you back at square one.
Josh starting being uncoordinated, lightheaded, and dizzy on Monday. We chalked it up to him being tired. On Tuesday he still had the same symptoms so I called Dr. Schertz against his will. Dr. Schertz was worried and ordered a stat CT which happened Tuesday afternoon. We didn’t get the results until this morning. Since Dr. Schertz was supposed to be calling Josh I knew it was bad news when my cell started ringing and it was him. He said that the results of the brain CT were abnormal. Josh has a brain mass…according to the neurosurgeons measurements it is about 1 x 1.5 cm but according to the radiology report it is 3cm. Since receiving the call this morning things have gone by so fast yet incredibly slow. Today seems to have gone by so fast yet we got a lot accomplished. Dr. Schertz got us an appointment with a top of the line neurosurgeon today at 12:30…since we were worked in we had to wait about 2 hours to be seen. After that we had to meet with Dr. Schertz to discuss our options. At this point we have 2 options we can do surgery to remove it or we can leave it there for it to continue to grow. We have never considered doing nothing…we will continue to fight this until the cancer is gone and we have won the battle. The neurosurgeon, Dr. Harron, wanted to get the tumor out quickly since it is growing quickly and Josh is at an increased risk for seizures already. The neurosurgeon said that we have several good factors:
- The tumor is 1 large mass instead of several smaller masses.
- The tumor is near the surface of the brain so they won’t have to dig around in Josh’s brain as much.
- The tumor is not near the brain stem and there is very operable.
- The tumor is on the right side so if the surgery affects his movement it will affect the left side. Josh is right hand dominant.
- The tumor is on the right side which explains why he has been running into walls, doors, toys, and dropping things, and probably even why his left hand fingers are tingling which we have chalked up to the chemo since that is a side effect.
Dr. Schertz called Indiana University today to get their opinion on what to do next. At this point we are going to continue ahead with the CT on December 3. This CT will be of the chest/abdomen/pelvis. If there is any larger/new tumors we will be going to Indiana for the stem cell rescue. If there is nothing new we will continue monitoring the remaining cancer. At this point we are not sure when we will get repeat scans of the head done…that will be up to the neurosurgeon.
So, just like when Josh was first diagnosed the next few days will be jammed packed with as much family time as possible, presurgical testing appointments for an MRI, labwork, and an ekg and more doctors appointments. Josh will be having brain surgery Friday morning, given everything goes good it will last about 3 hours. Since the tumor is already rather large according to the neurosurgeon it is very possible for Josh to have a seizure before surgery on Friday so he can’t be left alone for a while. I am prepared for him to have a seizure, I have my nurse friends down the street ready, I have seizure medicine, I am prepared in hopes that nothing will happen. He will be in ICU for a few days and in the hospital for about 5 days as long as everything goes smoothly. We are pushing for Josh to be home by Thanksgiving but at least by Kobie’s birthday, which is December 4.
I know I’m forgetting something but I will post again tomorrow…today has been really stressful. My mind is in a million different places right now.
This post was posted on Wednesday November 19, 2008 at 8:40PM
