Jess’ Surgery happened on December 10th 2007.
Her neurosurgeon, Dr. Alfredo Quiñones (aka Dr. Q) informed us that he successfully removed about 85% of the tumor from Jess’ right Lateral Ventricle (Occipital horn).
Because the brain swells after surgery, and creates extra spinal fluid, the Dr. Q inserted two drainage catheters to her head, and she had to remain in intensive care until December 17th .
As she came back into consciousness, Jess was in horrific, cranial pain, because, Tylenol was the only pain reliever that the doctor would administer for a couple of days. Eventually, after 48 hours, Dr. Q allowed a light, narcotic-type pain medicine so that she could manage her pain. The surgery left her vision critically impaired.
The legion grew along the edge of the Occipital area in the right Lateral Ventricle, and the Occipital lobe is the part of the brain responsible for vision. The left side of her field of vision was impacted before surgery, and much worse post-surgery. Dr. Q thinks that as the brain “settles down” that she might get some vision back. But, there may have been permanent damage, too, which we won’t know for several months, probably.
Jess has been recovering at home since December 17th. In the beginning, within the first two days of being back at home she had to go to the emergency room for extreme pain. Much later, we discovered that her spinal fluid was still in an elevated state of over production, or under re-absorption which causes Hydrocephalus (water on the brain). She was enduring three times normal pressure on her brain! We didn’t figure that out in the beginning. But once we called Dr. Q, she went back to
On December 28th, Dr. Q met with us as a follow up. During the meeting, he let us know that two pathologist have reviewed Jess’ specimen, and are in agreement that the tumor is a low grade Astrocytoma. Low grade Astrocytomas are less common than other tumors and therefore less familiar to doctors. The doctors don’t know why such a low grade (benign) tumor with slowly dividing cells would have caused the overall legion to expand so rapidly. Their opinion is that the underlying cells are not considered highly invasive and rapidly dividing (malignant). When we asked Dr. Q about the correlation between the coincidental increase in tumor growth and the timeline of her pregnancy, he told us that he didn’t think that being pregnant caused the tumor to grow. So, it is still a mystery.
But, the determination came as something of a relief. However we are not out of the woods yet.
Since 15% of the tumor remains, we are assuming that her treatment plan will at least include 6 weeks of radiation (5 days a week for 6 weeks) and daily doses of dexamethesone, a steroid that reduces brain swelling during radiation – but also has a host of bad side effects. Dr. Q is not recommending chemotherapy, however, because chemo is only effective on rapidly dividing cells. Jess has had radiation therapy in 2006 for the previous tumor, and we both have a sense of what’s this will be like for her. Recovery from the radiation treatments will probably extend her overall recovery well into summer. We expect Jess to have a lot of fatigue throughout her radiation treatment (starting in week two).
This was Jess’ third brain surgery in 6 years, with the last two surgeries occurring in 2006, and 2007. Both of the last two surgeries were needed in order to re-section two *different* tumors, and both were benign. While, it is possible to survive a life of undergoing brain surgeries every 2-6 years, each surgery takes quite a toll. At the least, the most immediate cost is the dispiriting of the patient. So, we will try to continue to do what we can to keep a positive mental attitude, keep trying to have a good sense of humor. Watching Jake grow and do different stuff every day has a therapeutic value beyond words. But, eventually, we are planning that more surgeries are coming down the pike. We know that our family is willing to offer more sustained support. In time more will be revealed about how best we can receive the support.
We have inserted a number of educational links about the kind of tumor that the pathologists reported, and more. This will give you an idea of what we are looking at as we begin the process of re-programming our lives.
As always, we are so very appreciative of the loving support we have received from family and friends (whether old friends, new friends or anonymous).
http://www.emedicine.com/NEURO/topic190.htm
Lateral Ventricle (Occipital horn)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_ventricles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrocephalus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dexamethasone
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/hmn/W07/feature1.cfm
http://www.braintumorfoundation.org
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