ANA Discussion Forum
Treatment Options => Radiation / Radiosurgery => Topic started by: LakeErie on October 11, 2016, 06:33:29 pm
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Last year was four years after subtotal resection of the tumor and the remnant showed progression. On Sept 19th this year, the 5 year MRI showed further progression and the Cleveland Clinic Gamma Knife Center recommends
GK. The procedure is tomorrow morning with the MRI at 7:30 am.
The Clinic is one of the few hospitals accredited to teach GK with the Perfexion unit and one of the two doctors involved, Dr Barnett (like Dr Lundsford,) had a fellowship in GK at the Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Hospital where Lars Leksall first used GK to treat brain tumors. Barnett is also the co-director of the Gamma Knife Center and a board neurosurgeon.
The original tumor was large and had drastically thinned my facial nerve in places. That fact increases the risk of facial complications from the usual 1% of patients to 5% in Barnett's estimation. He said the facial nerve is very resilient and any weakness post treatment will be amenable to immediate steroid use, whenever the weakness arises and I will have a script for that when I leave as it must be started the first 24 hours. That all said, he does not expect complications.
After the surgery at age 65, I hoped to get 5 years without further treatment and I did just that.
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Saying a little prayer for you today for your GK to have the most favorable outcome. Good luck and blessings to you!
Cathy
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thank you Cathyroe, the long day was uneventful and the treatment was deemed text book. Took longer today than estimated last Sept, but the 80 minutes passed quickly as I listened to a local sports radio station instead of the offered music. Thanks again and good luck with your issues, it seems perfect recoveries are hard to come by, but the other patients today provided perspective for me, all three of them were younger than I am and were treated for brain mets from kidney and lung cancer and melanoma. The last patient had 4 new lesions on the MRI this morning after gamma on the mets months ago for the first time. The others were unchanged.