Aly came out of surgery and is doing good. The neurosurgeon removed the new growth in the frontal lobe and also removed as much as he could of her original tumor. At first glance and after initial testing neither look cancerous. It will take a couple of days to make a final determination. All of the new growths have gotten smaller since the last MRI, so we are hoping these are all good signs.
The surgeon said that the remaining original tumor was still inteferring with her eye nerves so she may have loss of vision on her left side due to removal. He is hopeful that if she does, that it may come back after healing. We will not be sure until she wakes up and he can examine her. She also has a cyst still remaining on her brain stem which they could not remove without fear of dire consequences but he said it is the same consistency of the original tumor he removed, so there is a good chance that if the original tumor is no longer cancerous this would not be cancerous either and would be treatable with the radiation. We just need to wait for results.
The other issue he confirmed was that her pituitary gland is not functional and will not be functional, meaning Aly will continue to have to monitor her diabities insipidus and she will need hormone therapies as well as thyroid medications throughout her life.
YAY Aly! Way to fight the good fight! When I was going through chemo I remember praying that just as God make King David victorious in battle so would He empower the chemo to conquer every evil cancer cell. It's been three years since my last treatment and so far so good! I will be praying the same for you!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you received my posts before, but I am a high school friend of your Aunt Cheryl's. I had breast cancer that went into my lymph nodes, so they hit me with everything they had. I know how trying it can be and also seem like it will never end, but God has given us weapons, and He gives us courage to face the things we need to go through, but most importantly He gives us HOPE and HOPE never disappoints! We have life now worth fighting for and we have the hope of a new world without pain!Whoopie!
So my advice is to use the 'cancer card' as we called it and let everyone pamper you...even if it's bothersome to you, it helps the people who love you feel good!
And... radiation was a breeze! I had 45 rounds so every day for a LONG time. On the bright side they had awesome cookies!!! My Dad would drive me and we would stop at McDonalds and have a snack, it was a special time for us!
I also found that when I was really sick...I would remember all of my blessings...life, doctors, family, wonderful friends... it was magical!
Anyway...way to be a tiger! Be brave and fight on... it's really cool when we win! No survivors here...CONQUERORS!! That's what I'm talking about!
All my love and prayers
Laura Bell
Thinking of Ally today and everyday! Thank you for the update.
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