Before 2009 there was only one neurosurgeon office in Lancaster County. My neurosurgeon was a former Army doctor, a good guy with an impressive resume. But I wasn't real comfortable in his care.
He had not been a great communicator, caused me some hardships with prescriptions, and finally made a recommendation that I knew could be flat out dangerous to my well-being.
Today Barb and I are off to meet a new neurosurgeon. A new office opened a few months ago and a doctor there has already gained the admiration of both my family doctor and my oncologist.
I'm sure I'm heading for another Gamma Knife radiation treatment to zap the three small tumors which were found in my brain last week. That will be the third Gamma Knife treatment so far this year. I don't have to tell you that is just too much.
I feel pretty confident about efforts and possibilities to control the cancer from the head down. The brain is a whole different animal.
With all our advances in medicine, we still do not understand the unique blood filter our brains' possess. So we cannot get chemotherapy to the brain. The options are limited.
Hopefully the chemo I'm currently on can squish the cancer into remission and stop the spreading to the brain.
I've been assured that the Gamma Knife can be repeated many times since it uses such precise, thin beams of high dosage radiation. But it can't be repeated forever. Once radiated areas of brain start intersecting the Gamma Knife will start causing more harm than good to healthy tissue.
Working closely with this new neurosurgeon, and my oncologist, on this predicament will be a major resolve of mine through May.
Today we should get a schedule for the planned Gamma Knife procedure, then we can start penciling everything else into place.
Next week work is planned to start on installing central air into this old house. Talk about an interesting project! I can't imagine trying to snake vents through nearly 200-years of additions and revisions, plaster and hand-cut logs. But we've got a good local team who really knows this town and its building history. They've got a great reputation.
Once we finished painting the front two living rooms we noticed that a couple pieces of our furniture were really tired and had to be replaced. We found a couple pieces we liked, at a price we liked, last week and ordered them. We'll be waiting for those pieces to arrive in May as well.
In the meantime I'm going to keep trying to live well, eat well, exercise and keep fighting.
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