Kathy is now in neuro intensive care, hopefully for no more than 24 hours then to the regular neuro floor. She's still sedated, with as you can imagine quite a headache & a lot of nausea (and the resulting 'yuk' part mentioned prior).
Mom & I did deli & have now gone our ways home. A little Jewish soul food always helps. Maybe tomorrow I'll try Italian soul food (chicken cacciatore) or my ultimate soul food PIZZA!!!
I'm going to try to sleep but fully anticipate either returning to the hospital (wait room only) or calling the nurses a few times to check in.
I can already feel pangs of separation anxiety.
Lucycat however is more concerned that her food bowl is only half full & that I dare to let the heat turn off for more than a minute. Yap Yap Yap. I think a little catnip for her & a glass of red wine for me should help. (I might give her both!).
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI am also diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma (1cm in size), so I'll follow your updates with great interest and wish you all the best!
The doctors in my hospital recommended a gamma knife procedure to me, though not all experts agree, maybe a surgery would be better.
Why did Kathy choose surgery and how big was her tumor?
Hello from the States!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your well wishes.
Kathy's tumor was 2+ cm & was growing close to brain stem, plus she had a constant buzzing in her ear & was having balance issues. Because of these reasons & because of her young age and otherwise good health our doctors (we had 3 opinions)felt surgery was the best option.
More importantly Kathy 'wanted it out'.
My own father had the same 8 years ago, so we came into this well educated, plus we are blessed with several friends & family members that are either doctors, nurses or have access to professional medical info sites.
We chose surgery because Kathy was focused on that solution(I whole heartedly agreed) & because our research indicated that gamma would not halt or destroy the AN
with any degree of confidence.
Of course surgery is not without it's risks so you should take your time deciding.
Gamma may have one advantage though, if it does halt the growth you haven't put yourself through the risks & discomfort Kathy is now fighting through, if it doesn't work you may still have surgery as an option ???
Not fun stuff, however as several doctors have told us, if you have to have a brain tumnor AN is the one to have. (Small comfort huh?)
Best of luck to you. Thanks again for your kind wishes.
PS: Austria is on our list of places we would love to see!
Hi Dale!
ReplyDeleteI just read for about 3 hours papers/forum messages on the AN, and now I checked back to see what's going on with Kathy.
Great that she is making progress!
It's hard to make a decision what to do, with all the different pro's and con's.
At first I was more inclined to go for surgery, but now I was told in my case hearing preservation is more likely with gamma knife and the facial nerve wouldn't be at risk with radiation.
Still: no one knows the long term effects of the gamma knife, so bad stuff could happen in 10, 20 or 30 years...
So it's very reasonlable of Kathy to "get it out" and be done with it :-)
I will have to talk to more doctors about my case.
In case you come to Vienna, it's of course possible to meet. I'm trying to become a better city guide for international friends who visit me here anyway :-)
All the best!
Thomas