Gamma Knife #4, Mexico and Brain Surgery

April-May, 2017

If you haven't already been overwhelmed by my story, this may be the post to do it! It has definitely been overwhelming to me.

The week before we were due to leave for Mexico I had a brain MRI with some bad news. Two of the brain lesions we had radiated before were larger, and there was one new one. I was still in tears when we got home from my doctor appointment and didn't even have time to take my shoes off before my radiation doctor was calling. She said we needed to radiate those spots and she was willing to do it the following morning. The best thing for easing anxiety is to get things taken care of asap! I didn't even have time to let the bad news settle with me before I was taking care of the issue.  I've been so blessed with amazing doctors that realize the urgency of my situation. I had gamma knife radiation again (for the 4th time) and it was fairly uneventful. I asked the gamma knife nurse what is the most number of times they have treated someone... and he said 5. I'm almost to the MOST amount of sessions that gamma knife center has ever treated someone. Not really the award I'm going for. But this radiation is keeping me going. It's extending my life and keeping my brain clear-ish so that I can continue to live and enjoy my life. I would do this treatment every week if it meant I would stay alive.

The next week we were set to leave on vacation. I got clearance from my oncologist and my neurosurgeon to leave the country, although they weren't excited about the idea. My neurosurgeon sent me with a prescription of dexamethasone, a strong steroid just in case I have swelling from the gamma knife. Thankfully I didn't have any problems or pain while on our vacation.

Our trip was amazing! We flew to Cancun, and then traveled about 40 minutes south to Playa Del Carmen. This was our second trip to Playa, and it was just as great as we remembered. We stayed at an all inclusive resort and went zip-lining over the jungle.

The day after we returned from Mexico I had a horrible headache that woke me up in my sleep and brought me to tears. I also noticed that I had slight vision loss in my left peripheral vision. Very slight, but enough to scare me. The next morning I called my neurosurgeon and he sent me for an urgent MRI that evening. The next day I was at work when my neurosurgeon called me himself. He said that the MRI showed a cyst had formed around one of the lesions that we radiated, and that this is a rare complication of gamma knife radiation. He told me I needed to have brain surgery to remove the cyst tomorrow morning! He wanted me to go home after work, pack a bag and head to the hospital that night so I would be ready for surgery first thing the next morning. This is not the call you want to get during your work day. I was able to keep it together for the next few hours until my work day was done.
When we checked in that night they had a room ready for me on the neurology floor. I didn't really sleep that night, and my surgery ended up getting pushed to late afternoon. As the nurses were prepping me for surgery my neurosurgeon came in to talk about the surgery.  He talked about the risks involved with the surgery. I would not get back any vision I had lost... and there was a large possibility I would lose even more vision from the surgery itself. The lesion was right in the middle of my visual cortex, which is a dangerous place to be. I thought about how life would be, I may not be able to practice dental hygiene if I have more vision loss... would I be able to drive? so many questions and worries were going through my head that it brought tears to my eyes, not to mention the fact that this is CANCER, and these brain lesions don't seem to easing up anytime soon.

When I woke up from surgery the first thing I noticed was that I could see my nurse who was standing to my left. I could SEE her. I could see everything perfectly! I had no additional vision loss, and the vision loss I had before was gone. I could see everything clearly. I remember thanking God for the surgery going well, and for keeping my vision.

When I was able to see Corey after surgery he informed me that he had talked to my doctor right after surgery and it turned out that once he had opened me up he saw there was no cyst. Instead there was blood around the dying tumor. It had bled, which was causing my extreme headaches and vision loss. He let the blood drain and removed the dying tumor while he was in there. This was good news, even though it doesn't sound like it. He had less area to remove, and didn't have to mess around too much in there and injure my visual cortex. My post op CT scan looked great. No tumor, no cyst, no blood. It was as if it never happened. God is so good. I can't express the feeling of waking up from surgery and realizing everything went better than expected. I'm so grateful. To my doctor, to God, and to my husband for being by my side.