Dear Raj,
I have brain mets, first dx with it Sept '02, almost 17 months ago. Altho I have not had a craniotomy, I have conversed at length with a gal who did.
She said it was not a very difficult nor painful experience for her. I think her tumor was slightly smaller than what your wife has. My friend always said that she was much more afraid to have GammaKnife or Stereotactic Radiosurgery because of the screwed on head frame. I have had three of those procedures and she thought I was the 'brave one'.
Ofcourse, I have always felt just the opposite!!!
Her recovery afterwards was not lengthy nor problematic.
Decadron will probably be an ongoing drug prescribed to your wife for some time because of the edema. For me, that has always been the worst of having brain mets because of the horrible side effects including insomnia. Sleep depravation really wears a person down when combined with everything else, physical and emotional.
It is a travesty that the doctors did not take this more seriously with the first brain MRI. I do believe I would be looking for different doctors now. My faith in the others would be zero at this point.
After your wifes surgery and recovery, I would also be pushing for a stereotactic radiosurgery to eliminate any remaining tumor and holding off on whole brain radiation. If she has had this tumor this long, without developing multiple mets, it would be a hard sell to me justifying the radiation of the whole brain. Even if another 3 small tumors are found with subsequent MRI's any of the focally directed radiation treatments would be sufficient.
Hope this has been of some small help to you both,
pattyz
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