A Plan!

Before I forget, let me assure you that E. and I both survived the flu. The even better news is that it does not appear to be making its way through the house (knock on wood!).

E. had his MRI yesterday afternoon. Laying flat with pressure on the back of his head (where the back incision is) was uncomfortable, but other than that, the scan was uneventful. We confirmed that the radiation oncologist would be able to access the films and reports in preparation for the Brain Tumor Board on Wednesday and yet were still a tad leery when we left. Information doesn't seem to flow as well between doctors as it does in places like MD Anderson, the Mayo Clinic or other big medical facilities. Once you've experienced the process in a big facility, it certainly makes you wonder why other facilities don't replicate what obviously works so well. Aaaahhh, a tangent I won't go off on right now.

Anyways, the Brain Tumor Board obviously met bright and early. It wasn't even 8:30 a.m. when we received a phone call from the radiation oncologist informing us that E. would be having radiosurgery. That means that E. gets to have Cyberknife! While we were prepared for either of the options, if given the choice, we would definitely have chosen Cyberknife so the news put smiles on our faces. I know some people are confused when we talk about Cyberknife and we were too initially. Just to clarify: it is not surgery; it is more like fancy radiation.

A CT still needs to be done, as both the CT and the MRI are used to "map" out exactly where and what the radiation will zap. Some sort of mask will need to be made to hold E.'s head exactly in place because the radiation is so precise (hopefully I'll be able to provide a picture of E.'s mask soon). E. has appointments for the both the CT and the mask on Monday. Cyberknife will then begin on Wednesday. We were initially told that there would be between 3 and 5 treatments of Cyberknife (one treatment per day) and that each treatment would take approximately 45 minutes. We haven't heard anything different from that at this point.

Other than knowing that E. gets to do Cyberknife, we don't know what else the MRI said. Hopefully we'll get more details about that soon too.

After some recent lab work, it was discovered that E.'s Dilantin level (anti-seizure meds) isn't at the therapeutic level, so the radiation oncologist increased his dosage. While E. has never had a seizure, they want to make sure he doesn't start having them now. I guess radiation treatments to the brain (or really, any time you mess with the brain) can increase your risk for seizures so they do what they can preventatively.

It feels good to have a plan. And a plan that we wanted feels even better.