Treatment Plan Update

Well, went in today for a few things. The day actually started yesterday afternoon with a call from the MRI folks--they were trying to get me in ASAP for the special Closed MRI that Stanford needs before the CyberKnife therapy next week. There was bit of confusion, because my records now read "claustrophobic" so they try to do everything with me under the "Open MRI", rather than in the older "Closed MRI". You know, the coffin tube. So around and around and around with the schedulers until I got frustrated and just called the Neuro Science team and asked them to kick some butt. Boy did they. Seems the NP and the MA from the NS team got frustrated as well, so they pulled in their Chief to raise a little cain. Next thing I know I got a call at 1045 this am from the MRI trailer asking when today would be good for me! Showed up at 1130, right into the coffin tube, and the special MRI scans were done. Oof, 3 mm cuts instead of the usual 5 mm cuts. Took a Long time. Gotta love that Xanax. I actually fell asleep for the last 20 minutes or so of the scan!

For those across the pond: think of an MRI (or a CT of that matter) as taking planar views (cuts) through a structure. For many of these types of scans the cuts are spaced every 5 mm. They can be done top to bottom, side to side, etc. Taking 3 mm cuts effectively doubles the number of "pictures" so it takes longer and has the advantage of offering better views for some tasks. Also, the Closed MRI truly looks like a tube, you slide into it instead of under it. The main advantage is that the spatial resolution and detail are much greater. The Open MRI is like lying between two huge metal pancakes with open sides, but the spatial resolution and detail is decreased. Much more comfortable though.

After the MR we ate a great Vietnamese lunch (Pork Bo Hue and Shrimp paste sticks: spicy pork soup and shrimp paste rolls on a stick), then raced back to the Hospital to have the staples out and a surgical consult on removing the "barometer" lesion at the back of my scalp.

The staples are now out and replaced with SteriStrips (why bother? The strips are stuck to the hair and not the wound. Not like they are doing anything). The wound looks great and is healing well.

The general surgeon will have me back on 10/9 to remove the barometer lesion. It is currently at 1.5cm x 1.5cm x 0,5cm, as I measured it on the MRI. Gotta love electronic records, I have a disk of today's MRI so I used it to examine the scalp lesion dimensions and extension. Much easier than trying to use my fingers at the back of the head.

Recup from the craniotomy continues to go pretty well. I managed to walk up to the kid's school after dinner tonight, and only needed a brief rest on the way back. Maybe by next Monday I can start bringing Sheba along again for the evening constitutional. Still foggy at times, but that is to be expected. Boy was the drive down to Hayward a rush! First time driving myself since the surgery, so a bit different (Robin was golfing in the hills, no cell phone coverage!)

Got the pathology results from the crani, they look a bit odd and are being sent out for a second. But, they did show persistent necrosis (death) in the tumor, so the chemo did have a good effect.

The current plan is to restart the chemo about 28 days post operatively, no calendar in front of me, but that would be around October 17 or so. Looks like we get to take the family vacation at Fort Bragg with me still able to eat. Woo Hoo!

Steroid taper starts today at 0600 hours! Yes, 4 more days and I can drop this crap!

The next posts are going to deal with technology issues, I have had some questions from family and friends, and I have some questions for all of you, so I am going to do a roll-up review and cover all of them at once.

Be Well.