Travis and I just got back from a follow-up with our neuro-oncologist, Dr. Ashby. Travis got his stitches out and his incision is healing very nicely. We discussed future treatment and what options we have now. Dr. Ashby is skeptical about gamma knife. She said it is not used in the brain stem because it is such a delicate area. Gamma knife is a single high dose radiation treatment that is effective on small very differentiated tumors. She said that regular radiation is delivered over several weeks in very small doses. This is more effective for Travis' glioma. The whole neuro team meets today and they will discuss treatment options and make recommendations. We are leery of radiation and it's side effects. Dr. Ashby said this is really our only option now. She said that in her career she has only seen about 10 cases like this. Doing radiation usually adds about 2 years to the remission or low-grade status of the tumor. But in most cases these tumors become more aggressive at some point down the road, usually several years later. We will meet with Dr. Kresl, a radiation specialist to discuss radiation options with him.
I feel like we are kind of back at the beginning now. Except for a major brain surgery that Travis has to recover from. We feel stronger than ever that the nutrition link is going to be key is beating this. We are planning to meet with a naturopathic doctor to work in conjunction with our neuro-specialists. I guess I was really hoping that Dr. Spetzler could get most of the tumor and they could zap the rest with gamma knife and that would be it. Done. Gone. All better. That would be so much easier than the reality of our situation. For now we will continue on the path we are taking and realize that this is a long-term challenge we will deal with.
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