I guess it is for real. I just got a call from the neurosurgeon and we have a date for surgery, October 7. I will be fitted for a fashionable hospital gown at 5:30 a.m., a last minute MRI at 6:30 a.m. and into surgery at 7:30 a.m. The surgery will take around 4 hours.
This earlier date for surgery is not due to any turn of events. We were told end of October or beginning of November, as a best guess to the next available time. We knew they had asked for earlier rather than later, per our request, due to our health plan.
Nobody guessed it would be this fast.
So here we are. Buckle up and put on your knee pads.
I love you all,
m
Monday, September 28, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
Wanna see a pic?
If you are interested in seeing a picture of Mark's MRI, let us know and we'll email it to you.
Didn't want to shock anyone by just posting it :)
Anyway, just wanted to let you know we have it if you are curious.
Didn't want to shock anyone by just posting it :)
Anyway, just wanted to let you know we have it if you are curious.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Meeting with Neurosurgeon
We had our meeting today with the neurosurgeon, and feel confident with him. He said that the "brain mass" is "almost certainly at least a low grade tumor, level 2." Therefore, he recommends surgery to remove it and to do a biopsy.
We should know the exact surgery date by Monday, but it will most likely be around the end of October or beginning of November. Mark will be at a hospital in Boulder that has state-of-the-art MRI technology, which will enable the surgeon to see MRI images of his brain in "real time" as he works. (It's the only hospital in this 5-state region that has this equipment.) It will be a four-hour surgery, and he will be in the hospital anywhere from one to four days.
It was explained to us that almost all brain tumors are considered "malignant" on some level (which does not have the connotations it use to have). What that means is that Mark will very possibly need some chemotherapy and/or radiation after we hear the results of the biopsy. There is also a good possibility that he will need a second "follow-up" surgery to remove anything "missed" in the first surgery.
On an encouraging note, this neurosurgeon believes that there is a chance that the tumor is causing the problems in Mark's leg (unlike the opinion of the neurologist we first saw). So, hopefully that will be taken care of with the surgery.
When we find out the exact date of the surgery, I will post again on the blog.
We are feeling kind of drained, but overall are doing well.
Thank you again for all the kind and encouraging words, and especially for the prayer! It makes a difference!
We should know the exact surgery date by Monday, but it will most likely be around the end of October or beginning of November. Mark will be at a hospital in Boulder that has state-of-the-art MRI technology, which will enable the surgeon to see MRI images of his brain in "real time" as he works. (It's the only hospital in this 5-state region that has this equipment.) It will be a four-hour surgery, and he will be in the hospital anywhere from one to four days.
It was explained to us that almost all brain tumors are considered "malignant" on some level (which does not have the connotations it use to have). What that means is that Mark will very possibly need some chemotherapy and/or radiation after we hear the results of the biopsy. There is also a good possibility that he will need a second "follow-up" surgery to remove anything "missed" in the first surgery.
On an encouraging note, this neurosurgeon believes that there is a chance that the tumor is causing the problems in Mark's leg (unlike the opinion of the neurologist we first saw). So, hopefully that will be taken care of with the surgery.
When we find out the exact date of the surgery, I will post again on the blog.
We are feeling kind of drained, but overall are doing well.
Thank you again for all the kind and encouraging words, and especially for the prayer! It makes a difference!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Why the title?
So this is my first blogging attempt, but with everything going on here this week, I figured this would be a good time to give it a try.
Here's the nutshell:
Last Tuesday (9/8), Mark had an MRI on his brain. He has had recurring numbness in his right leg for a couple of years now, and this was the latest attempt to find the cause.
On Wednesday, the neurologist asked us to come in to view the results with him. Turns out, Mark has a golf ball-sized "mass" in the back left part of his brain. It is mostly fluid, like a cyst ~~ which would probably be no big deal if that was all it was. However, there is a darker colored part in the middle which the neurologist wasn't sure about. So, he referred us to a neurosurgeon for a biopsy.
We'll have our initial meeting with the neurosurgeon on Thursday, September 24th. We won't know anything else until then.
Who knows? Prayer may already have been answered, and it may already have been healed, or may be nothing to worry about.
On the other hand, we may leave that meeting with an actual date for a biopsy.
I'll do my best to keep this blog updated with all the info.
So how are we?
Ups and downs.
For me, the first couple of days were hard... A muddle of emotions.... Just all over the place...
By Saturday morning, though, I was doing better, and have been since then. Why?
Well, other than just giving my emotions time to level out, I think most of it has to do with the fact that God keeps bringing the same Truth to me, in a variety of ways.
The Truth:
Jesus is my Rock, my solid, firm foundation to stand on and rest on no matter what comes.
This exact, specific Truth has come to me in several ways, including in a novel I'm reading (a Yada Yada Prayer Group book), in a song that kept coming to mind ("On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand"), and then today at church when the pastor spoke on that EXACT SUBJECT!! Um, yeah,.... ok, God, I get it!!!
Hence the title of this blog.
Mark is doing fine. Like I said, ups and downs. It's just a weird place to be.
The boys just know the basics, in very simple terms. We're not making it a big deal around them at the moment. They're doing fine too.
Praises I have to include here:
#1 ~ Mark definitely does not have MS, and definitely did not have a stroke!
#2 ~ God's Word tells us to "be thankful in all things." We have been wondering why Mark has had this problem with his leg. Well, if it wasn't for that problem (which the neurologist is convinced is completely unrelated to the brain mass), he wouldn't have gotten the MRI, and we may not have known about the "mass" until it may have been life-threatening (which at the moment, it doesn't appear to be). So, we are thankful!!
Think that's all for now. Like I said, I will try to keep this updated so everyone knows what's going on (and so I don't have to write tons of emails, hehe).
Please pray that this is either healed or turns out to be nothing serious.
Please pray for our peace.
Thanks!
~kim :)
Here's the nutshell:
Last Tuesday (9/8), Mark had an MRI on his brain. He has had recurring numbness in his right leg for a couple of years now, and this was the latest attempt to find the cause.
On Wednesday, the neurologist asked us to come in to view the results with him. Turns out, Mark has a golf ball-sized "mass" in the back left part of his brain. It is mostly fluid, like a cyst ~~ which would probably be no big deal if that was all it was. However, there is a darker colored part in the middle which the neurologist wasn't sure about. So, he referred us to a neurosurgeon for a biopsy.
We'll have our initial meeting with the neurosurgeon on Thursday, September 24th. We won't know anything else until then.
Who knows? Prayer may already have been answered, and it may already have been healed, or may be nothing to worry about.
On the other hand, we may leave that meeting with an actual date for a biopsy.
I'll do my best to keep this blog updated with all the info.
So how are we?
Ups and downs.
For me, the first couple of days were hard... A muddle of emotions.... Just all over the place...
By Saturday morning, though, I was doing better, and have been since then. Why?
Well, other than just giving my emotions time to level out, I think most of it has to do with the fact that God keeps bringing the same Truth to me, in a variety of ways.
The Truth:
Jesus is my Rock, my solid, firm foundation to stand on and rest on no matter what comes.
This exact, specific Truth has come to me in several ways, including in a novel I'm reading (a Yada Yada Prayer Group book), in a song that kept coming to mind ("On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand"), and then today at church when the pastor spoke on that EXACT SUBJECT!! Um, yeah,.... ok, God, I get it!!!
Hence the title of this blog.
Mark is doing fine. Like I said, ups and downs. It's just a weird place to be.
The boys just know the basics, in very simple terms. We're not making it a big deal around them at the moment. They're doing fine too.
Praises I have to include here:
#1 ~ Mark definitely does not have MS, and definitely did not have a stroke!
#2 ~ God's Word tells us to "be thankful in all things." We have been wondering why Mark has had this problem with his leg. Well, if it wasn't for that problem (which the neurologist is convinced is completely unrelated to the brain mass), he wouldn't have gotten the MRI, and we may not have known about the "mass" until it may have been life-threatening (which at the moment, it doesn't appear to be). So, we are thankful!!
Think that's all for now. Like I said, I will try to keep this updated so everyone knows what's going on (and so I don't have to write tons of emails, hehe).
Please pray that this is either healed or turns out to be nothing serious.
Please pray for our peace.
Thanks!
~kim :)
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