brain surgery and Gamma Knife
 

Hello All,

After having a regularly scheduled MRI it showed that some of the previously treated tumors are growing back. There is a new 5 mm growth too. The growths are on or near the cerebellum.

I guess I'm posting to see if anyone has had brain surgery. How did it go? It is kind of scary. I have great faith in Jesus, but brain surgery? Yuck.

As you can see, I have had Gamma Knife before. So I kind of know what that's like. Jealous?

Thanks,
D.W.

Re: brain surgery and Gamma Knife
 

DW
hoping some of the brain mets experts on the board will jump in and offer their experience. Is it the location of the tumor/mets that require the surgical intervention rather than gamma knife?
Sending positive thoughts to you.

Re: brain surgery and Gamma Knife
 

D.W.,

It's probably better to keep zapping the mets as long as possible.

I had a brain met in Oct. 2008. A radiation oncologist and a neurosurgeon recommended surgery due to the size of the lesion (2.6 cm) and the fact that it was deep. They said I would get better control with surgery followed by radiation. The lesion was in the left frontal lobe.

The surgery went okay. The worst part was my head being wrapped very tightly with wide surgical gauze for the first 2 days in the hospital, which hurt somewhat. I was hospitalized for 4 days.

I took Decadron for a month, and because the drug is a steroid it started driving me nuts by making me hyper and also gaving me insomnia. Fortunately, I was not given the drug when I had the radiation. I returned to work in a month.

Six weeks after the surgery I had 5 dosages of targeted radiation (IMRT) over a week.

The side effects were minimal other than it seemed at first that my legs were weak (I would go out walking every day), and I had a sense of loosing my balance sometimes. For example, when in a drug store, I would hold on to the end of an aisle when I was going from aisle to aisle.

Joan

Re: brain surgery and Gamma Knife
 

Thanks for responding, ladies. I sure appreciate your input and kind words. This is quite a journey, isn't it? If anyone else has some thoughts or experiences feel free to respond.

D.W.

Re: brain surgery and Gamma Knife
 

Joan,

Did you have symptoms before your surgery? My onc. has expressed surprise that I haven't.

D.W.

Re: brain surgery and Gamma Knife
 

D.W.

It's a scary feeling just thinking about someone's going to cut into our head. That's exactly how I felt when I began to 'tremble' while waiting for my craniotomy.

If it is of any help, I'd like to share that I'd come back from a 23-hour brain surgery (a single, huge tumor located in the center of my brain) without too much 'deficit' 21 years ago. The Gamma-knife radiosurgery in 2001 helped curb the (slow-growing)tumors grown out of the residue cells.

These tumors (Grade II Central Neurocytomas) are unrelated to breast cancer (though it could be caused by similar genetic mistakes). But I did go through the same process and thought I'd share with you.

A couple of our members seems to have had brain mets in the same area. Hopefully they will chime in soon.

Re: brain surgery and Gamma Knife
 

D.W.,

I did not have any symptoms but my oncologist started annual MRIs after the breast cancer spread to my lung. I asked her, and she agreed. The tumor was spotted on the second MRI, 16 months after the first one.

The idea of the surgery was very frightening. I was upset about their recommendation. I thought the tumor would be zapped.

Jackie, Love the photo of your father. God bless him!!

Joan