A busy week
January 15 - 17, 2007 (+ a bit more)
On Monday, January 15, we went in to see my GP and get the staples removed. It's a very straight-forward procedure but a few of those staples coming out made me wonder how close this modern world was to making staples that would dissolve on their own, like the stitches that do the same. Anyway, it was good to have them removed. Now i could take a real shower, and not have to wair the hair thingy that stops my hair from getting wet.
On Tuesday we still hadn't heard from the neurosurgeon, as to what kind of tumour i was carrying - has it changed from "low grade" (slow-growing) to "high grade" (fast-growing)? We called him and left a message with his secretary, as he was in surgery at the time. He called back a few hours later, and told us that my tumour, which used to be an "oligodendroglioma" is now an "anaplastic oligodendroglioma". This means that yes, it has changed into high grade. This was a light surprise for me but it makes sense, considering the tumour looked like it wasn't growing when we left for India in October, and when we did the MRI on Dec.30'06 it had clearly "filled back in" the 50% that was removed in the first brain surgery on Feb.28'05. Three months is a short time for it all to grow back. The neurosurgeon didn't want to go into great detail about all of this, he wanted to let the chemotherapist and radiation therapist, who we were going to meet the next day, give us more detailed information. He did, however, speculate that "you're probably looking at a few years [longevity] rather than something shorter" (paraphrased).
On Wednesday we saw both the radiation therapist and the chemotherapist. In my case, it is very obvious what the avenue of action is with this tumour.
My treatment is like this:
- Starting Feb 7 (today), i begin 6 weeks of radiation therapy and low-level chemotherapy. The radiation therapy will be a daily dose, 5 days a week (not on the weekend). The low-level chemotherapy will be daily.
- When the 6 weeks of radiation therapy is over, there will be a month of "get strong again", before going to high-level chemo.
- The high-level chemo will be for 6 months. I will take chemo daily for the first 5 days of each month, and then have 23 days off. Then repeat, with the first 5 days of chemo, 23 days off. This goes on for 6 months in total.
Ok some comments on the above treatment:
- Basically this is a one-time-only for radiation therapy, in whatever area it covers - unless later on nothing else will work and that's all we can do, etc etc, and somehow it's better to do it than not.
- Years-down-the-road effects of the radiation therapy are minimal. There's a 1% chance of optic problems and ~1% chance that my pituitary gland would get damaged, requiring me to take various medication(s) that would offset the problems.
- Possible quick and permanent effect of the radiation therapy is: 40%-50% chance that i have slight issues with word-finding, speech and memory. I already notice slight issues with word-finding and memory as a result of my first surgery, and i work with it just fine. There are shades of grey to these potential problems, in how severe they can be. The more severe, the less likely.
- Temporary side-effects of the radiation therapy include hair loss in the area being zapped, and possible red skin in the same area, general fatigue and swelling in the brain, including headache. These are all "maybes", although the hair loss is more certain.
- There are no permanent effects of the chemotherapy. Temporary side-effects can include hair loss, nausea, and fatigue. Again, some people notice a lot of all of these, and some people experience nearly none of any of them.
From the medical to the personal:
As i've said before, i can't give "all the facts" without including something of how we're doing as the story unfolds. As usual, i won't be able to say it all, or say it properly. I'll do the best i can, but honestly, there's always another way to say it...
Dhalie and i are doing very well. We've had time to settle down, settle in and relax. We feel so fortunate to have what we do, in many ways. We can both stay home and share our time & space, with each other and with friends & family. My medical work etc is at the BC Cancer Agency, which is less than 2.5km away, with all of its resources (Q&A); this again means we can both stay at home, and be close to loved ones, while we work with this. And "work with this" is more-and-more becoming "work with this - and everything else". My recovery from the surgery is much faster than it was from the same surgery ~2 years ago, to our surprise and to our pleasure. I give much credit to all of those around us, near and far, who extend their well wishes, love and metta. Having Vipassana meditation, having the Dhamma, makes all the difference for us; it gives us so much more "room to move", and so much more ability to deal with this in a healthy way - which god knows, can be a challenge sometimes! It makes all the difference, all the difference; and for that we are grateful, to S.N. Goenka, our teacher, and to all others involved.
I'm going to sign off now, or i could write a small book! We'll add to this as things move along - and we'll post some of our experiences in India and/or Burma from Oct'06-Dec'06 while we're at it!
Thank you all, your well wishes do us so well, and we much appreciate it. In this situation there are a lot of things to be thankful for, that's for sure.
With many thanks, and well wishes,
jw
