02-07-2011 Monday

Catherine walked over to meet me for my 8:00 AM appointment with Dr. Ryken in the Covenant Clinic building. He went over the MRI and confirmed Dr. Rotenberg's tumor type diagnosis. He said he estimated the tumor to be about 2.5cm and located between the auditory canal and the brain stem on the left side. I told him that I was getting my hearing back and he thought that was probably because of Deximethizone (steroid) that I had to take for the chemo. He agreed that the cancer treatment should take precidence since the brain tumor is a slow growing type. He said that surgery was possible but it would probablu take 6 hours just to get to the tumor and that recovery would be at least 4 - 6 weeks. He thought the more likely treatment would be Stereotactic Radiation which is a computer and image guided technique that directs radiation only at the tumor. We also discussed the fact that one of my chemo drugs (called Avastin) has been shown to be effective on benign brain tumors as well as malignant tumors... so maybe we'll actually be treating both of my tumor types at the same time! God does work in mysterious ways! Thank you Lord for putting a little more hope into this once completely dire situation! You truly are an awesome God!!