My aunt was just diagnosed

[macintosh]

I think the most realistic thing to tell your aunt is that, while there are no guarantees in life, the rate of serious side effects from radiosurgery is very low. I had a small AN zapped in January, and I 've had no side effects. I'm going to paste in an excerpt from a University of Pittsburgh survey of their radiosurgery patients:

FROM THE WEBSITE: www.acousticneuroma.neurosurgery.pitt.edu

When asked whether Gamma Knife radiosurgery met their initial expectations, 106 patients (92%) said yes. This included 97% of responders in the prior surgical resection group and 91% in the no resection group.

Complications were described by 36 patients (31%) and most of these were minor, 56% of which resolved. The majority of the symptoms were not those usually considered to be complications after a resection, but just typical of some of the complaints that an acoustic neuroma patient may have.

Radiosurgery was described as a "successful" treatment by 30 of 30 patients who had undergone prior surgery and by 81 (95%) of those who had not undergone a prior resection. When asked if they would recommend the procedure to a friend or family member, 109 (95%) said yes, two said no, and four said they could not answer for another person.

[jeansear]

Hi everyone
My aunt had the GK on May 10th at NYU. Dr. Golfinos is her doctor. He was wonderful. Very supportive, answered all the questions. We arrived at the hospital at 6am, went to admitting and then downstairs to the GK suite. A nurse gave my aunt a pain killing "lollipop" medication which I later found out was something like morphine. Then they set her up with an IV and Adavin. My aunt is extremely claustrophobic and wanted to be "out" for the MRI and GK- and so she was. They fixed the "cage" to her head using 4 screws. It really didn't look that bad. Then they took her in for an MRI ..more waiting while they mapped out the GK approach and then finally the GK. The worst part of the whole ordeal was the after effect of the drugs. It was like she was drunk. She was pretty sick- like a really bad hangover. The nurse had wrapped a bandage around her head and you could see leakage from the pin holes coming through. After 3 days she seemed better and started walking around with a cane. On the fourth day she was able to stay alone and today she returned to work without the cane. She says she feels fine. So I am keeping my fingers crossed that the GK works and starts shrinking the tumor. Dr. Golfinos said it would be about 6 months before we saw any results- including any bad side effects - such as swelling.
Thanks for all your support. I don't know what I would have done without this forum.

[ppearl214]

I'm so thrilled to hear of this update on your aunt.  My hope is that as the weeks progress, her energy level will be good and will experience minimal side affects.  Continued wellness to her... and huggles to you for being such a great support to her during this time!


Phyl