And the Treatments go on.. and on.. and on...

After meeting with the Radiation oncologist and discussing the pro's and con's and possible side effects of Stereotactic Radiation surgery, we decided to go ahead with it... I really didn't have much option. I could allow it to continue to grow, have the radiation surgery, or whole brain radiation... Kind of was a no brainer.

Stereotactic Radiation surgery is radiation focused on a specific point. The goal is to eradicate the tumor while not affecting very much of the healthy brain cells. My husband and I met with the radiation oncologist Monday and received a call Tuesday that they wanted to do the procedure Wednesday... So yesterday morning we made it to the hospital at 7am. By 8am I was being taken down to have the halo attached. I was extremely nervous about having this screwed into my head. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. They numbed my head in 4 different areas. They then hand screwed in the halo. Once they got the screws in it caused a ton of pressure, but after a while the pressure went down and it was just a small ache.

After they got the halo on they then attached the halo (and me of course) to a CAT scan machine and did a scan of my brain. I then was taken back to my room to sit and wait for them to get the plan made. The only bad part about the waiting was still having the halo attached to my head. It did not allow me to rest my head or neck. I had to hold it up all day. My shoulders and neck were not pleased with this.... 2:30 they were done with the plan and took me back down to do the procedure.

For the procedure they attached the halo to the table so I could not move at all. Then they used 5 beams at different angles to perform the surgery. This only took 20 minutes. They then removed the halo... which actually hurt worse then going in. The pressure in my head and sinuses was horrible! Then as it started to go down the "holes" started to hurt and my stomach got so upset. Fortunately this did not last all night.

So we were at the hospital at 7 am and left at 4pm... amazing considering all they had to do in the day.
There aren't supposed to be any long term side effects... so that is good. At this point I just have pain where the screws were in, a sore throat, sinus pressure, and fatigue. Hopefully this will be gone in a couple days.

I start chemotherapy Thursday, October 6th. I will be going once a week, 2 weeks on 1 week off. The radiation oncologists plans for this procedure to have taken care of the tumor in the brain, and now the chemo will be to control the rest of the cancer. My prayer once again is to stop it all together... Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement during all of this.