Thursday, February 3, 2005 3:12 PM CST
Please keep praying. I hope there are lots of you praying.
Dr. Rockhill shared the MRI with us. The news is not good. In fact, it could hardly be worse. The tumor has grown a lot in the last two weeks. It is beginning to invade the corpus callosum, which is the tissue that connects the two sides of the brain, so it is encroaching on the other side. It is also growing backward, nearing the brain stem and invading the motor cortex.
The volume is much too huge to treat with gamma knife. Dr. Rockhill did create a treatment plan. He says that they can treat a larger area than they usually do, but with a smaller dose, they cannot treat it all, he is selecting the parts where he feels the tumor would do the most damage as he grows. This carries a risk of swelling, which he said has about a 50% chance of causing Dave to have to be hospitalized in about 3 weeks.
He said the other option is to treat the symptoms with steroids, and try a chemo when Dave's counts came up. The surgeon and the neuro-oncologist also consulted on the case. Basically, they left it up to Dave. They said that they could pull out this one last-ditch effort and go out swinging, but possibly compromise his quality of life, with no guarantee that we are even buying more time.
We are scared beyond belief. We all prayed together, seeking God's wisdom and peace with the decision. Dave wants to fight with all he has. He's an amazing warrior. He said, "Fight pressure with pressure."
So they're readying the machine, and he'll go in for the treatment soon. Please pray for a miracle. Please.
Please keep praying. I hope there are lots of you praying.
Dr. Rockhill shared the MRI with us. The news is not good. In fact, it could hardly be worse. The tumor has grown a lot in the last two weeks. It is beginning to invade the corpus callosum, which is the tissue that connects the two sides of the brain, so it is encroaching on the other side. It is also growing backward, nearing the brain stem and invading the motor cortex.
The volume is much too huge to treat with gamma knife. Dr. Rockhill did create a treatment plan. He says that they can treat a larger area than they usually do, but with a smaller dose, they cannot treat it all, he is selecting the parts where he feels the tumor would do the most damage as he grows. This carries a risk of swelling, which he said has about a 50% chance of causing Dave to have to be hospitalized in about 3 weeks.
He said the other option is to treat the symptoms with steroids, and try a chemo when Dave's counts came up. The surgeon and the neuro-oncologist also consulted on the case. Basically, they left it up to Dave. They said that they could pull out this one last-ditch effort and go out swinging, but possibly compromise his quality of life, with no guarantee that we are even buying more time.
We are scared beyond belief. We all prayed together, seeking God's wisdom and peace with the decision. Dave wants to fight with all he has. He's an amazing warrior. He said, "Fight pressure with pressure."
So they're readying the machine, and he'll go in for the treatment soon. Please pray for a miracle. Please.
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