Eardrum punctures and Cyberknife adventures

I had to delay my first Cyberknife treatment, which was scheduled for yesterday, because my never-ending cold has now settled into my chest and I have a cough that rivals the sound of my motor scooter's engine. Besides just feeling lousy, I was worried that my coughing would shake my head too much for the Cyberknife. It tolerates small movements, but shuts down if the movements are too severe.

So instead, I called my primary care doctor, dear Dr. Chan, who answered the phone with the same phlegm-laden voice I have right now. Yes, he has this cold too. God bless him, he sent an order to the pharmacy for codeine cough syrup, and last night I had my first good night's sleep since this cold settled on me.

This morning I went back to Dr. Gupta to get the tube put in my eardrum. There was a lot of fluid backed up in there. It's nice to be able to hear out of my left ear again. My neighbors will no doubt be glad not to hear my TV too.

This afternoon, my adventures continued when I had my first Cyberknife treatment. The cough syrup did its job, with a little help from an adivan, and I actually napped through most of the hour-long session. The most impressive thing about today was how exuberantly I was greeted and hugged by all of the nurse techs who have worked on my case in the three different sets of treatment I've had there, when we all happened to converge in the main hallway at the same moment. It really made me feel good to have such a warm reception, despite being there for such an icky reason.

I met with Dr. Gillis and she explained that as she and Dr. Tse were designing my treatment, they saw an opportunity to further reduce my chance of a recurrence by zapping a deeper area under the original tumor site, along with the tumor remnant they saw on the MRI. This means a total of five treatments, which will end on Wednesday.

And then, I hope I can resume a mostly appointment-free life for awhile. However, this hair ain't growin' back, so I need to develop some sort of Phillip Johnson look for myself.

The latest

My ear:

I had a hearing test on Tuesday, which showed two things:
- I have significant hearing loss in my left ear....but
- there is no neural or brain damage related to this. It's just a lot of fluid backed up behind my eardrum. Dr. Gillis thinks the radiation may have played a part in it by drying out the wax in my ears, thus blocking the fluid's egress. Next Thursday Dr. Gupta will pierce the eardrum and install a tiny drainage tube. I should get most of my pre-brain tumor hearing back. Not having a hellaceous cold should help too

Cyberknife:

This morning, Kevin and I drove down to the Radiation Treatment Center where Dr. Gillis explained the procedure and its risks and had me sign the consent forms. Then we met Dr. Tse, who is a neurosurgeon in Redwood City and works with Dr. Gillis frequently on Cyberknife procedures. Dr. Tse explained the mechanics of how the Cyberknife works and that it's particularly good at zapping masses too deep in the brain to reach with a scalpel.

A new mask was created for my treatments,(to snap my head down to the board.) and a CT scan was taken. Tse and Gillis will use that scan together with the MRI that's being taken in Redwood City tomorrow to determine their "beam design". The actual treatments commence next Wednesday and end on Friday, 3 treatments in all, each lasting about an hour.

Good news on the Decadron front. I only have to take it on the three treatment days. This is very good news,since I'm only just now losing my toddler tummy and looking like my old self again.

Crap! Crap! Crap!

On Tuesday I went down to Redwood City to have my post-surgical MRI and follow-up exam with the neurosurgeon, Dr. Lavery.

Unfortunately, the scan was not the nice clear image I had hoped for. A small mass is still visible where the last tumor was removed.

So now I'm about to have a radiation procedure called "Cyberknife"' wherein a robotic arm will be programmed to zap that one little spot with multiple beams of radiation. This requires me to go back to Redwood city for another MRI and then to south San Francisco to consult with Dr. Gills next week, with the treatments beginning the following week. To me, one of the worst things about this is I'll have to go back on that awful steroid, Decadron.

I'm trying to be a good sport,, but this latest news really has me down. It doesn't help that I've come down with a cold.