Home Again
Well, I made it through once again. Knowing this time around what it would take to survive emotionally plus all of the great support from friends and family. I even had some suprize visitors in the ICU.
Just so everyone knows what they did. I intend to post a pre-operative and post-operative scan (picture) of the tumor area as soon as I can figure out how to use the CD’s that the MRI techs gave me. I will have to refer back to previous posts from the first blog in order to give you context. My first exposure to having issues with my head came about 5 years ago almost to the day. I was playing racquetball with my then "soon-to-be" roommate and gave him the scare of his life: a Grand-Mal Seizure in between serves. I started staring off into space and spinning into convulsions and irregular breathing ending up with me crumpled up in the corner of the court barely aware of what went on. We joke about it to this day as perhaps my way to throw his game off since he was beating me fairly soundly. As a result, the subsequent visit to the emergency room revealed a mass about the size of a lemon in my right-frontal lobe. The treatment back then was to remove it promptly along with any normal brain tissue it had invaded, and this was right before I was due to finish my degree in software engineering at ASU. Subsequently the recommendation for the treatment at that time was to just watch it after surgery to see how it reacted and if it changed. So I’ve been going to see my oncologist about every 3-4 months for regular scans and consultation. This last one last month proved to be too much and now as a result of this surgery I’m missing almost my entire right-frontal brain lobe. It’s really weird because you look at the scan and realize that there is absolutely no brain there and yet I’m walking around, typing on the computer, eating, and having relatively normal conversations with people.
So I’m back home again, living with two of the best parents a son could ask for. Trying to convince them I’m alright and I’m managing well seems to be the topic of discussion most of the time. In time I hope to move back to my own house I just purchased 2 months ago.
The only difference this time around along with more brain tissue being gone is that the team of physicians is recommending chemo and radiation therapy this time. Something I’m not necessarily looking forward to, but if it is supposed to help, who can argue too much right?
January 30th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Hi, Jeff. We’ve all been wondering how you’re doing. So it was great to see your blog entry. We miss you at work, but get your synapses healthy and well before you think about coming back to the CTL. Our regards to your parents and family. Take care. Aloha, Naomi