We have a great doctor ( Jerry Jaboin ). He focuses on research and knew about all the latest stuff we have read about on the internet. One comment he made is that not much progress was made on brain tumors a few years back because there was no money for research. That has changed recently and now lots of new developments are starting to happen. He is following clinical trials closely. His specialty is treating Glioblastomas so we feel like we are in the right hands. Plus he is a lot of fun to talk to and as Jessie said, gave us cheese.
I was fitted with a mask to hold my head in place so they can target the tumor area. They can shape the beam now and he feels the tumor was away from all the “vital” stuff so I should have a good treatment with very few side effects.
My first radiation treatment is scheduled for Tuesday next week.
This is NOT my mask but one I found on the internet to show what it looks like. I will see if I can get a picture of mine. I know they took a couple.
I have also made it into a study using a new contrast agent in MRI’s to using Ferumoxytol on Glioblastomas to highlight the cancer cells. Fermoxytol uses iron particles to show up differently in the tumor cells via an MRI. This is important after treatment as the area treated can be swollen and look as a false positive for tumor regrowth. The hope is this new view will give us a more accurate picture of the tumor blood supply and how much actual tumor there is.
And of course it would have been better if I could have had an MRI done with this new agent before surgery but we did not know it was a Glioblastoma before surgery. Everyone thought it was an Oligo and this study is not being used on Oligo’s.
So Wed, Thur, Friday I will have MRI’s done with various contrast agents and then Chemo and Radiation starts Tuesday next week due to 4th of July being on a Monday and delaying my start one day.
So my Fireworks will be a day late this year.
Overall doing well and everyone has been so positive given my age, fitness, and how well the surgery went. I cannot say enough how important it is to stay fit and eat healthy. You never know when you will REALLY need that fitness to kick in. I never would have expected that going to the gym every day would have resulted in me doing so well coping with a brain tumor. Dr Jaboin even made a comment how well a patient he had did as he started a fitness program once he went into radiation therapy and ended up in better shape than he started in. It is never too late to start!
Oh and Jessie and I have started on the Ketogenic Diet. It is supposed to be beneficial to cancer treatment. It goes completely in the opposite direction of what I normally ate as it is much higher in fat but it has a emphasis on vegetables and I can live with that. The bulk of the diet is fat with moderate protein and little to no carbs. I was really eating more protein with moderate carbs and little fat so maybe I will get lucky and die of heart disease in 30 years.
I would be happy with that!
