Now We Wait

Well we just got back from the Lancaster Health Campus where I had the follow-up MRI of the brain. Now we will just wait for the results.

I get more nervous about cancer activity in the brain than anywhere else in the body. I guess the reasons why are fairly obvious. The main reason I worry so much about the brain is because it's so difficult to treat. It truly is a miraculous puzzle that's still very far from our true understanding.

I always try to read signals from the MRI techs after they're done with the scans. But that is an effort in futility. They're pretty darn good at playing dumb. I could walk away thinking this or thinking that about how they may have reacted. But it's all guessing, and really not worth the worry until there is actually something to worry about.

I do know that there is scar tissue in my brain from my first radiation treatments. I know this because a recent MRI was read by a radiologist incorrectly. He or she mistook some of that old scar tissue as active lesions. Fortunately a radiologist oncologist read the scans and told me to forget everything I've been told, there was a tumor found, but just one not multiples.

I still do feel a little off. My coordination isn't what it used to be, and I'll feel a little foggy at times. I have been told that in rare cases some patients take as long as two-years to recover from radiation. That made me feel better, knowing that it's not unusual for me to still feel effects like this six-weeks after treatment.

My experience has been, that if something is found to be askew, the phone typically rings the same day as treatment or the day after treatment. So we're hanging out with the telephone today through tomorrow.

The latest I would learn anything is next week when I'm scheduled to meet with the nuerosurgeon who is overseeing the brain radiation treatments.

We're saying little prayers here. Actually we're saying a few large prayers too. But we'll take each day as it comes and continue to make the most of each and every day.

Hey, at least I didn't get attacked by a chimpanzee like one poor woman did yesterday, as reported on the news this morning.