Brain mets…now what

I'm glad that your husband was successfully completing the surgery!   Now you have 2 opinions,  start arranging for other opinions while your husband is recouperating.  During this time if there was still no other tumors I personally would be looking into either gamma or SRS.  They can always do the WBR later.

How is your husband actually feeling today?  

Linda

brain met:  SRS on Oct 4th, results coming Dec 6th

I'm glad that your husband was successfully completing the surgery!   Now you have 2 opinions,  start arranging for other opinions while your husband is recouperating.  During this time if there was still no other tumors I personally would be looking into either gamma or SRS.  They can always do the WBR later.

How is your husband actually feeling today?  

Linda

brain met:  SRS on Oct 4th, results coming Dec 6th

I'm glad that your husband was successfully completing the surgery!   Now you have 2 opinions,  start arranging for other opinions while your husband is recouperating.  During this time if there was still no other tumors I personally would be looking into either gamma or SRS.  They can always do the WBR later.

How is your husband actually feeling today?  

Linda

brain met:  SRS on Oct 4th, results coming Dec 6th

I'm glad to hear all went well with your husband's surgery.

My mom just had a craniotomy on Tuesday (11/29/11), which also went well, fortunately.  The neurosurgeon told us the surgery was going to go 2.5 – 3.5 hours.  About 1 hour into surgery, we were called up to the surgical suite.  I started to panic, thinking the surgeon was going to come out and tell us she had had some horrible intra-op complication.  But nope, the surgery went much faster than expected and they got all of it.  Before surgery they told us it was 1.5 cm and bleeding.  When the surgeon spoke with us, she told us it was "a bit bigger" and made a circle with her fingers bigger than a quarter, which made me unhappy, as the imaging study had just been done weeks before (seemed like fast growth to me). Anyway, be grateful for whatever you can, i try to keep remembering – they got it all.

This was my mom's second brain mass.  The first one (1 cm) was completely eliminated a few months ago with SRS, which I think is the same thing as gamma knife.  The worst thing about that procedure, according to my mom, was the head cage.  I think one of the screws was too tight and pretty painful for the duration (why she didn't tell them is beyond me).  She had a headache afterward and that spot on her head was sore from the screws, but that was pretty much it.  A subsequent scan showed some swelling to the area that they thought might be somehow related to the ipi my mom was taking.  They said they see that sometimes with ipi patients and that they think it's a good sign (must have been in my mom's case since that particular tumor was eradicated).

I would go with SRS if you can, especially if it's the radiation oncologist recommending it.  That's what they do.  Surgeons don't do radiation.  I guess they do make recommendations, though, since after surgery my mom's neurosurgeon also said that she wanted some radiation to the area.  I'm assuming it's the SRS again since she says she got the whole tumor.  I think there's a 1 cm limit on SRS.  I think WBR is also associated with increased problems, like cognitive deficits, memory loss, whatnot.  If the oncologist thinks they can keep the radiation confined to the area, I say why irradiate the whole brain? 

I hope this helps.

I'm glad to hear all went well with your husband's surgery.

My mom just had a craniotomy on Tuesday (11/29/11), which also went well, fortunately.  The neurosurgeon told us the surgery was going to go 2.5 – 3.5 hours.  About 1 hour into surgery, we were called up to the surgical suite.  I started to panic, thinking the surgeon was going to come out and tell us she had had some horrible intra-op complication.  But nope, the surgery went much faster than expected and they got all of it.  Before surgery they told us it was 1.5 cm and bleeding.  When the surgeon spoke with us, she told us it was "a bit bigger" and made a circle with her fingers bigger than a quarter, which made me unhappy, as the imaging study had just been done weeks before (seemed like fast growth to me). Anyway, be grateful for whatever you can, i try to keep remembering – they got it all.

This was my mom's second brain mass.  The first one (1 cm) was completely eliminated a few months ago with SRS, which I think is the same thing as gamma knife.  The worst thing about that procedure, according to my mom, was the head cage.  I think one of the screws was too tight and pretty painful for the duration (why she didn't tell them is beyond me).  She had a headache afterward and that spot on her head was sore from the screws, but that was pretty much it.  A subsequent scan showed some swelling to the area that they thought might be somehow related to the ipi my mom was taking.  They said they see that sometimes with ipi patients and that they think it's a good sign (must have been in my mom's case since that particular tumor was eradicated).

I would go with SRS if you can, especially if it's the radiation oncologist recommending it.  That's what they do.  Surgeons don't do radiation.  I guess they do make recommendations, though, since after surgery my mom's neurosurgeon also said that she wanted some radiation to the area.  I'm assuming it's the SRS again since she says she got the whole tumor.  I think there's a 1 cm limit on SRS.  I think WBR is also associated with increased problems, like cognitive deficits, memory loss, whatnot.  If the oncologist thinks they can keep the radiation confined to the area, I say why irradiate the whole brain? 

I hope this helps.

I'm glad to hear all went well with your husband's surgery.

My mom just had a craniotomy on Tuesday (11/29/11), which also went well, fortunately.  The neurosurgeon told us the surgery was going to go 2.5 – 3.5 hours.  About 1 hour into surgery, we were called up to the surgical suite.  I started to panic, thinking the surgeon was going to come out and tell us she had had some horrible intra-op complication.  But nope, the surgery went much faster than expected and they got all of it.  Before surgery they told us it was 1.5 cm and bleeding.  When the surgeon spoke with us, she told us it was "a bit bigger" and made a circle with her fingers bigger than a quarter, which made me unhappy, as the imaging study had just been done weeks before (seemed like fast growth to me). Anyway, be grateful for whatever you can, i try to keep remembering – they got it all.

This was my mom's second brain mass.  The first one (1 cm) was completely eliminated a few months ago with SRS, which I think is the same thing as gamma knife.  The worst thing about that procedure, according to my mom, was the head cage.  I think one of the screws was too tight and pretty painful for the duration (why she didn't tell them is beyond me).  She had a headache afterward and that spot on her head was sore from the screws, but that was pretty much it.  A subsequent scan showed some swelling to the area that they thought might be somehow related to the ipi my mom was taking.  They said they see that sometimes with ipi patients and that they think it's a good sign (must have been in my mom's case since that particular tumor was eradicated).

I would go with SRS if you can, especially if it's the radiation oncologist recommending it.  That's what they do.  Surgeons don't do radiation.  I guess they do make recommendations, though, since after surgery my mom's neurosurgeon also said that she wanted some radiation to the area.  I'm assuming it's the SRS again since she says she got the whole tumor.  I think there's a 1 cm limit on SRS.  I think WBR is also associated with increased problems, like cognitive deficits, memory loss, whatnot.  If the oncologist thinks they can keep the radiation confined to the area, I say why irradiate the whole brain? 

I hope this helps.

I'm glad to hear all went well with your husband's surgery.

My mom just had a craniotomy on Tuesday (11/29/11), which also went well, fortunately.  The neurosurgeon told us the surgery was going to go 2.5 – 3.5 hours.  About 1 hour into surgery, we were called up to the surgical suite.  I started to panic, thinking the surgeon was going to come out and tell us she had had some horrible intra-op complication.  But nope, the surgery went much faster than expected and they got all of it.  Before surgery they told us it was 1.5 cm and bleeding.  When the surgeon spoke with us, she told us it was "a bit bigger" and made a circle with her fingers bigger than a quarter, which made me unhappy, as the imaging study had just been done weeks before (seemed like fast growth to me). Anyway, be grateful for whatever you can, i try to keep remembering – they got it all.

This was my mom's second brain mass.  The first one (1 cm) was completely eliminated a few months ago with SRS, which I think is the same thing as gamma knife.  The worst thing about that procedure, according to my mom, was the head cage.  I think one of the screws was too tight and pretty painful for the duration (why she didn't tell them is beyond me).  She had a headache afterward and that spot on her head was sore from the screws, but that was pretty much it.  A subsequent scan showed some swelling to the area that they thought might be somehow related to the ipi my mom was taking.  They said they see that sometimes with ipi patients and that they think it's a good sign (must have been in my mom's case since that particular tumor was eradicated).

I would go with SRS if you can, especially if it's the radiation oncologist recommending it.  That's what they do.  Surgeons don't do radiation.  I guess they do make recommendations, though, since after surgery my mom's neurosurgeon also said that she wanted some radiation to the area.  I'm assuming it's the SRS again since she says she got the whole tumor.  I think there's a 1 cm limit on SRS.  I think WBR is also associated with increased problems, like cognitive deficits, memory loss, whatnot.  If the oncologist thinks they can keep the radiation confined to the area, I say why irradiate the whole brain? 

I hope this helps.

I'm glad to hear all went well with your husband's surgery.

My mom just had a craniotomy on Tuesday (11/29/11), which also went well, fortunately.  The neurosurgeon told us the surgery was going to go 2.5 – 3.5 hours.  About 1 hour into surgery, we were called up to the surgical suite.  I started to panic, thinking the surgeon was going to come out and tell us she had had some horrible intra-op complication.  But nope, the surgery went much faster than expected and they got all of it.  Before surgery they told us it was 1.5 cm and bleeding.  When the surgeon spoke with us, she told us it was "a bit bigger" and made a circle with her fingers bigger than a quarter, which made me unhappy, as the imaging study had just been done weeks before (seemed like fast growth to me). Anyway, be grateful for whatever you can, i try to keep remembering – they got it all.

This was my mom's second brain mass.  The first one (1 cm) was completely eliminated a few months ago with SRS, which I think is the same thing as gamma knife.  The worst thing about that procedure, according to my mom, was the head cage.  I think one of the screws was too tight and pretty painful for the duration (why she didn't tell them is beyond me).  She had a headache afterward and that spot on her head was sore from the screws, but that was pretty much it.  A subsequent scan showed some swelling to the area that they thought might be somehow related to the ipi my mom was taking.  They said they see that sometimes with ipi patients and that they think it's a good sign (must have been in my mom's case since that particular tumor was eradicated).

I would go with SRS if you can, especially if it's the radiation oncologist recommending it.  That's what they do.  Surgeons don't do radiation.  I guess they do make recommendations, though, since after surgery my mom's neurosurgeon also said that she wanted some radiation to the area.  I'm assuming it's the SRS again since she says she got the whole tumor.  I think there's a 1 cm limit on SRS.  I think WBR is also associated with increased problems, like cognitive deficits, memory loss, whatnot.  If the oncologist thinks they can keep the radiation confined to the area, I say why irradiate the whole brain? 

I hope this helps.

I'm glad to hear all went well with your husband's surgery.

My mom just had a craniotomy on Tuesday (11/29/11), which also went well, fortunately.  The neurosurgeon told us the surgery was going to go 2.5 – 3.5 hours.  About 1 hour into surgery, we were called up to the surgical suite.  I started to panic, thinking the surgeon was going to come out and tell us she had had some horrible intra-op complication.  But nope, the surgery went much faster than expected and they got all of it.  Before surgery they told us it was 1.5 cm and bleeding.  When the surgeon spoke with us, she told us it was "a bit bigger" and made a circle with her fingers bigger than a quarter, which made me unhappy, as the imaging study had just been done weeks before (seemed like fast growth to me). Anyway, be grateful for whatever you can, i try to keep remembering – they got it all.

This was my mom's second brain mass.  The first one (1 cm) was completely eliminated a few months ago with SRS, which I think is the same thing as gamma knife.  The worst thing about that procedure, according to my mom, was the head cage.  I think one of the screws was too tight and pretty painful for the duration (why she didn't tell them is beyond me).  She had a headache afterward and that spot on her head was sore from the screws, but that was pretty much it.  A subsequent scan showed some swelling to the area that they thought might be somehow related to the ipi my mom was taking.  They said they see that sometimes with ipi patients and that they think it's a good sign (must have been in my mom's case since that particular tumor was eradicated).

I would go with SRS if you can, especially if it's the radiation oncologist recommending it.  That's what they do.  Surgeons don't do radiation.  I guess they do make recommendations, though, since after surgery my mom's neurosurgeon also said that she wanted some radiation to the area.  I'm assuming it's the SRS again since she says she got the whole tumor.  I think there's a 1 cm limit on SRS.  I think WBR is also associated with increased problems, like cognitive deficits, memory loss, whatnot.  If the oncologist thinks they can keep the radiation confined to the area, I say why irradiate the whole brain? 

I hope this helps.