Doctors were positive!!

So sorry to be posting later today.  It was a long doctor day, leaving the house for Rush downtown at 5:30am.  Barbara and I met with all three doctors of the Brain and Spine Institute at Rush and some of the medical professionals that work with them.  My surgeon claimed that he left a large hole in my head, taking any tissue he saw that was cancerous, with the exception of tissue in and around the speech center.  He could not tell that was cancer and knew not to go into areas that were fully functional.  Great, great news.

All three doctors agreed that the next step for me is radiation.  The neuro-oncologist and radiation oncologist both explained the need for 5-6 weeks of radiation at a center that dealt with a sufficient number of primary brain tumors and therefore had the neuro-oncology colleagues to get help from if side effects took over.  They each said Temodar, the chemotherapy I have been taking, is probably unlikely to help any further at this point.  One mentioned Gleevec, but said he had no open clinical trials, and the other mentioned Avastin. 

Dr. Byrne, the neurosurgeon, wants me to have an MRI somewhere in the next week and a half and then see him with the results.  He knows that I’ve been seeing Dr. Paleologos at Northshore University Health System in Evanston as my neuro-oncologist and asked me to have her see me with the MRI during that same period and to tell me who to see for radiation oncology.  The radiation should start in the next 2-3 weeks.  It is going to wear me out.

I need more time to think this through and read Barb’s notes tomorrow.  Also a chance to read the operating report.  I was actually hoping to skip the radiation, but that now seems unlikely.  Still, what I took from the entire day was the statement that Dr. Byrne made when I asked him whose patient I was.  He said he hoped we would soon be starting a period of 3-5 years when I am in control.  What a blessing that will be.  Thank you family and friends.

Oh, and good news.  I can drive again!!