Hi Folks,
I have been a little uncommunicative lately and thought I would give a quick update on why and what’s going on.
Recently Charise went in for an eye checkup because she was having some headaches and blurred vision, after finding some abnormalities they sent her to get an MRI, and to see her Doctor. This was actually a very good catch on the part of the Ophthalmologist that was there.
Unfortunately she was diagnosed with 5-6cm brain tumor in the back of her head near the spine (sort of between the halves of the brain). Fortunately, the tumor does appear to be operable based on a meeting with a neurologist today. The tumor is also in a relatively, as such things go, good spot for surgical removal without lots of collateral trauma (it is too large for non invasive techniques). Also some preliminary indicators through die saturation suggest that it might be benign. However we are waiting on some blood work and won’t know anything for sure until a pathologist can actually examine it directly. Still all good news given the potential down sides.
We are currently beating the bush to get an appointment with UCSF, which outside of John Hopkins, is supposed to be the best in the world for this type of procedure. Idealy we will have the procedure done there.
Right now we are looking at probable a week post op hospital stay and then a two month or so recovery at home, however all that subject to best case scenarios.
Well that is the long and short of it, needless to say we are little stressed but after today’s meeting we are actually feeling fairly secure and confident that things are going to turn out ok. Of all the possible things that this could have been (MS etc) this is in many ways is the least threatening and most actionable.
I will probable be in and out of work a bit leading up to the surgery but Charise will stay out until she is fully recovered (still working on that arm thing as well).
Thanks for your patience and understanding
, but anyway; I think this is very good news and we are definitely going to be meeting with the right person next week. I feel pretty reassured by what we found out and I think we did the right thing to wait instead of pushing forward with the Dr. down here that we had talked to, though he was very nice and very helpful.