Its back.

Well, the worse has happened and the cancer has returned. I thought that maybe these lesions had been there all along but we missed them because we didn’t do an MRI, but I talked with my oncologist last night and he believes they are probably just a few weeks old.

I noticed some weakness and a slight tremor in my right hand on Sunday. By Monday it had gotten worse and included some weakness in my right leg also. So I called my doctor and tried not to be a total hypochondriac (hence the previous blog) but she agreed with my history it would be prudent to go ahead with a brain scan. By Tuesday, the tremor had gotten worse and the weakness had increased. By Wednesday when we did the MRI I was fairly certain that there was something wrong, I just didn’t know what it was and was praying it wasn’t a return of the cancer, but I knew the odds were good that the lesions had hit my brain.

I met with the radiologist in the afternoon and he confirmed that I had two tumors in my brain, one in my left frontal lobe which is affecting my motor skills on my right side and one in my right occipital lobe which is affecting my vision and may have caused me to have a small seizure last week. The cancer cells from the tumor in my frontal lobe have broken free and are “floating” around my brain and could easily go into my spinal fluid. So tomorrow I am having a lumbar puncture to look for cancer cells in my spinal fluid and inject chemotherapy to begin to fight them in case they are there. Additionally, there are various other spots on my brain that are potential tumors in the event they are not taken care of soon.

I met with the radiation oncologist this morning and was fitted for my radiation mask to start my full brain radiation treatment tomorrow. They will do 15 rounds of radiation on my entire brain to try to kill everything. At the end of 15 rounds we will see how the tumors are doing and if they need additional radiation I will go to Seattle for gamma knife or cyber knife, which is pinpoint radiation to blow apart the tumors. Dr. Rado is also looking at a medication which I may take after the radiation that crosses the blood brain barrier to prevent future tumors.

This is not the news I wanted to hear and has certainly put a monkey wrench in my current life plans. But, all I can do is keep my attitude positive and believe that third time is a charm, I beat it twice before and I’ll beat it again.

I will keep you posted on my treatment. I start the radiation tomorrow and will know the results of the spinal puncture next week. My girlfriends are planning a girl’s night at my house on Saturday night starting about 6pm. So if you want to stop by, please feel free. It is bring your own whatever, and I’ll be the diva sitting on the couch being waited on hand and foot. There has to be some advantage to having brain tumors.