The WOW first! Because we all need to know that even when it looks like there is a set back things can still work out.
In January of this year my Mom's MRI was still showing all 28 brain tumors that were treated by gamma knife. This last week she had her 3 month follow up MRI. Her radiologist only saw the area of her brain where the craniotomy ocurred and one tumor that was treated in August of 2015.
Nothing else was visible! Nothing!
So, either the remaining evidence of the 27 treated tumors is completely gone OR they are now so small that the MRI can't "see" them.
HISTORY
My Mom, 78 year old, was diagnosed with Stage IV in November of 2013. We didn't know it at the time, but she also had 3 brain mets that the radiologist missed! Lucky for us we saw a second and then a third opinion. The third doctor had his radiologist look at her MRI and they found 3 brain tumors. (Even I knew there was a problem when I saw the screen…)
My Mom ended up having not 3 on the MRI. 8 of 9 brain mets were gamma knifed in early December of 2013. The radioncologist missed 1 of the 9, but we would not know that until April of 2014.
She started Yervoy 4 days after the first gamma knife treatment and did really really well. She only did 3 of the 4 infusions and got colitis, but even with that we saw a huge decrease in the subcutaneous tumors.
Unfortunately, we found in accidently (another misdiagnosis!) that my Mom had 17 more brain tumors on top of the ones treated in late 2013. Needless to say it was a bit scary, but we didn't know there were that many. – We had switched all of her care to USC in Los Angles when we were told by a neuroncologist that we need to wait and see how the new tumors progressed before we talked about gamma knife. (Idiot!) – Within 24 hours we saw her new radiologist and we have been thrilled with her care and the results.
A year or so went by and my Mom had great results between the Yervoy and the gamma knife, but did had a reoccurrence that needed to be treated with a craniotomy in June of 2015. We then found out that she had another brain tumor in August of 2015, which was treated with gamma knife. She started Keytruda in September of 2015. – My Mom had few side effects from all the treatment, with the exception of colitis and thrush. She went back to the DMV and retook all of her tests after the gamma knife treatment and has been driving since early 2015… No cognitive issues to report. Thank Goodness!
Can't recommend her doctors or USC in Los Angeles enough. I can't imagine that she would still be alive or have all of her faculties without them.
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