This was the day after finding out i actually had a tumour. This was before we were closer to being "fully informed", it was as best we knew it at the time. We hadn’t read through our oncologist’s report on the MRI, and so we didn’t know that it was suspected to be a mid-to-high grade (grade 3 or 4) astrocytoma.
I sent copies of this email/update to friends, family and work colleagues.
From: John Wolford
Sent: February 16, 2005 12:52 AM
Subject: Medical update
Hi Dharm,
Time for an update. We don't have all of the answers yet, but we have some. Things are moving really quickly, now. We had Maecan & Dana, Mom and Yvonne over tonight, and we called Dad and put him on speaker phone, so it was a real "group session".
My MRI came back, and i have a "large" tumour in the left temporal lobe of my brain. They don't know exactly what kind it is, but it's large enough (6-7cm) that it needs to be removed immediately. I have an appointment tomorrow with the surgeon, and i expect it will be scheduled to happen within a week (the actual surgery that is, not the scheduling - the scheduling may well be done by tomorrow when i see him).
So the surgery will happen within a/the week. I'm looking at a hospital stay of 4-5 days, and then perhaps another 3 weeks recovery at home. The surgery is "common" and "very safe". Depending on the type of tumour, and they'll have all the unknowns answered when they get their hands on it, i'll have different treatment options, including combinations of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or none.
The different scenarios that could be the case for me are 3-fold. This is put "simply", as Dhalie & i understand it from our meeting with our neurologist.
1. It's a benign tumour. This means a "good" tumour, which is there, can be safely removed and it will not grow back, and if it does it won't be a quick growth. This is the most desirable out of the three. It's also unlikely.
2. It's a "bad" tumour but not the worst kind: astrocytoma. In this case they have very good success rates for removal and treatment into "remission", which can mean it's not an issue for me for many years, 10 seems to be a common number of years for this. It is most likely this type of tumour that i have, based on a few factors, age being one of the biggest.
3. It's the "worst" tumour - i'm not sure of the name just now, i think it might be glioblastoma. It is not as likely to be this as it is to be #2 above. This one is harder to treat, is always fatal, and has a much faster timeline. It is different for different people, but it is usually fatal within 2-3 years.
The tumour will be identified before i wake up from surgery (basically immediately). The treatment after the surgery depends on what kind of tumour it is. I will likely be off work for a good month, maybe less, maybe more, depending on how my treatment is going and how i feel.
I expect you'll have a variety of questions. Please feel free to ask any & all questions, and you can ask or talk to myself, Dhalie, Mom, Dad, Maecan, Dana - basically anyone. Everyone is in the loop, and everyone will do anything they can to help with it.
Sorry for the bad news, it was a surprise to us too. Like i said, the whole thing will be a lot more complete when the tumour has been extracted and identified.
We'll keep you posted. There's a fair bit that i haven't written here, for example "how i'm doing with it", etc. I'll save that for another email/talk. We certainly feel very fortunate to have the family we do, i think everyone feels that way right now. In some interesting ways my "quality of life" has gone up as i turn to face this stuff. It's interesting.
Lots of love, bro :-)
jw
