It's Official

What I had removed from my brain was a Stage III (of IV) gemistocytic astrocytoma*. What they removed contained malignant cells. The report showed that there were "not a lot of mitotic figures, which means cancer-type cells that are reproducing rapidly. On the other hand, this type of tumor has the capability of turning into something more aggressive." (the quote is words from the neurosurgeon interpreting the pathology report.)

Because of the location of where they had to operate, they could not get as aggressive with the "margins" (remaining malignant cells) as they would have liked. There was very serious risk of paralysis of my right side had they tried to keep going. There is no confirmation yet of any additional cells left, but the neurosurgeon said the chance that there are none left are slim to none. These types of tumors almost certainly are going to be leaving some behind.

Bottom line is we now get into the world of oncology. I got me some cancer.

First step is getting a post-op brain MRI, which is scheduled for next Tuesday. By then I'll have an appt. with the oncologist, probably in a day or so after the MRI.

I'm still trying to absorb it all, but it surely helps to get some of the mystery out of the way. I'm not thrilled at all with the outlook, but it could be so very much worse. Just the fact that it's not a Stage IV is, in itself, something like good news. So far it seems it has not gotten all medieval on my ass with aggressiveness.

On the way home, I finally was able to get some much needed weeping out into the open. Been sitting on that for some time now and it felt really awful and good.

Good news... getting off the steroids this weekend. That will be a huge relief. Thrush is much better today. Bad news is I still can't drive. :( I was really looking forward to getting that back, but I won't be seeing the neurologist who prescribed the anti-siezure meds until 9/18. So 3 more weeks of feeling like an invalid. I'm sure it would be just fine for me to drive, but they apparently need to cover their butts in case something happened. I will be a good boy.

Got the staples all out and everyone agreed the surgery itself could hardly have gone better as far as healing, etc.

I'm sure there will be much more details and excitement to come. For now, I am going to try to get some rest... barely slept a wink last night.

Then we fight.

* I'll try to find a better link to exactly what this is. Astrocytoma is a common type of brain tumor that comes in many flavors. My particular flavor is not typical. The "gemistocytic" part is the part that needs more fleshing out. There seems to be some unsettled business with these diagnoses and I'll be finding out more... just not this afternoon. :)