Hello all and sorry for the delay in updating you all on what happened yesterday at the meeting with the surgeon. By the time we got out of the meeting we were in a mad dash to get Mom (Gamma) home, rush myself home, get Gracie and myself ready and then get to Kendall High School to watch my little brother graduate high school.. That was his moment and I didn't want to take attention from him. Now, as for the updates......
First of all - the surgeon is a very nice guy and had a more positive sounding tone than that of the first neurosurgeon I met with. The MRIs and x-rays I had done on Thursday June 23rd came back FINE! (big sigh of relief!!!) That means there was no tumors in my spinal area or chest!
The area in my brain that my tumor is located is a fairly small area to fit the size of the tumor I have. It is into my 4th ventricle and is also pressing into my brain stem. There's also a cluster of nerves that the tumor is against and those nerves control head and neck movements as well as the facial movements, tongue movements, eye movements and swallowing.
They think that the type of tumor I have is an ependymoma and it's a rare one, only about 2-3% of cases in adults are ependymomas. (I swear, I always end up with the rare things in life... Just take Tony for example :-) He's been so great throughout this and I love him so much!!!! <3 <3) This is something more common in children. We won't know what type of tumor it is until I am in surgery and they send a sample of it off to be tested. With ependymomas, they want to try and be very aggressive with surgery.
We have a tentative date for surgery.. well actually 2 possible dates right now. The first date is Jule 6th and the next day is July 11th. Right now they have to check out their current operating schedules and move things around. It's not an emergency to get me in right away but we definitely want this taken care of sooner rather than later.
We asked about how long he thinks I had this tumor and he said if he had to estimate, he'd say a couple years. All in all, I am very lucky we found this when we did. There were many obstacles, time constraints and shifted appointments that we had to overcome to even get in for my first doctor's appointment which started the line of appointments which eventually got me diagnosed. While I'd rather of not had anything to be diagnosed with, I am thankful someone was watching over me and helped me find this thing before it got too far down the road.
I hope that I've been able to answer some of your questions. My family and I probably still have many of our own that will come up in the meantime but I felt a little more at ease yesterday after speaking with the surgeon. (yes, even after my emotional breakdown in front of them all.) It's still going to be a very difficult road and I am going to have moments of complete sadness and fear - this is all normal. I will say that I have been put on anxiety medication so hopefully this can help me to be a little more calm for now.
My family and I want to thank all of you for your overwhelming amount of love, support, well wishes, daily thoughts, daily prayers, hugs, shared tears, encouragement and kind words! Without all of you - it'd make this road much more difficult. You have all opened your hearts, homes and schedules to us! We love you all and you'll forever have a place in my heart!
<3 Heather
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