Hi all...
I'm back in Chicago after a great week home in West Virginia. The weather was warm and it smelled and looked like spring. Who can complain about that? I even carved half a bowl!
As many of you know, we also went down to MD Anderson to check out the prospects there. My tumor is on the left half of my brain in the insula/sylvian fissure region. This makes is extremely difficult to operate on and along with my high level of functioning, it's why the neurosurgeons here decided not to do a craniotomy. That is, their entry route would have been through the Sylvian fissure and it would have been extremely difficult to preserve my speach.
One of the reasons I went down to MD Anderson was to speak with Dr. Lang, who is very well known for this ability to take out these tumors. His general opinion was that it was possible to resect, but that he still had the same reservations that Dr. Prabhu and Dr. Shea had here at Loyola. His inclination, to which I eventually agreed, was to wait 8 weeks until the radiation had taken some time to do its stuff, namely reduce the swelling and shrink the bastard.
My whole problem with waiting is this. I want to have taken the biggest swing at this as I possibly can and do it now. I realize there's a risk (a large one at that) to my speach and to my cognitive abilities, but if I want to have a chance at continuing my career in medicine I need to be recovered by the middle of July. If I don't have the faculties to come back, that's okay, but I will have given it my damn best shot.
The other reason I want surgery now is for a slew of trials. The whole glioblastoma multiforme world stood still for about 50 years as they failed and failed and failed to create treatments. That all changed about two years ago when a few agents showed promise. Now, that means they're all in phase I and II trials now, which means I have to fit their protocol amost exactly to get the treatment. That means surgery if I want to have a shot at these things.
Anyhow, so we decided to wait 8 weeks until we can see another MRI. Now I'm back here and I'll audit classes (to see how my own cognitive ability is coming along.) I'll probably miss a good portion of the classes for Drs. appointments and road trips, but that's all good by me. And you can be sure that I'll be out of your hair by the end of April so that you can get excellent board studying done!
Anyhow, peace out!
Mike
P.S. It's come to my attention that there's some distress about HIPAA and privacy laws with regards to my case. I want you to know that you are all my friends and you should feel free to speak to whomever you like and whenever you like. All of this and everything I've told you is free to talk about. I'd much rather have this crappy truth out there than crappy rumors. There is no HIPAA between us. All I ask is that you should respect people's personal feeling with regard to my situation. That is, if someone doesn't want to talk about it, just don't talk about it. Also, I appreciate my official medical record and people involved in my care to be kept private. Thanks so much!
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2 comments:
Check out David Welch's site at 38lemon.org. He had a tumor (Grade 2 Astrocytoma) in that location and found a surgeon willing to operate (Dr. Patrick Kelly, neuro-surgeon at NYU)
Like I said, the problem isn't that they're unwilling to operate on it, they're just worried about the risk to my speach and motor function. I'm clearly also worried about that too. In any event, we've got the surgeons (Dr. Lang or Dr. Prabhu) if I decide to go in that direction. Thanks for the head's up though.
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