Update - Gamma Knife #3

This was our third time through the drill. I could repost the May 10^th update and it would be accurate. Harold is now home resting: ice packs on his head, feet up, watching the Olympics.

Six tumors were treated¹, but here is the good news: these were not all new tumors. 

The first two we knew about. They were confirmed in the June 27^th MRI. The next two the surgical team knew about as suspicious spots but couldn’t verify until today. The last two – well nobody knew about them, but they showed up and have been treated. 

I asked if the team was watching any other suspicious spots. Nope. Everything else looks really clean.

We continue to learn more about this cancer:

Harold and I had assumed the tumors in his brain had come directly from the melanoma he’d had removed three years ago. Turns out it doesn’t exactly work that way. The melanoma cells that escaped his initial treatment spread through his blood stream to other parts of his body then metastasized to his brain. Maybe that’s a fine point but it also explains why he may continue to get new tumors in his brain until the systemic cancer is controlled. Wednesday’s PET scan will give first indications on how we’re progressing on that front.

Now here is some interesting news:

The gamma knife team is especially interested in Harold because his body is not responding in the usual way; and that’s a good thing. When gamma knife surgery zaps a tumor, it kills it. The cancer is deactivated and cannot spread or grow; but the mass is usually still there.  The doctors are especially excited about Harold’s case because not only are the previous tumors deactivated – they are gone.  

¹Total brain tumor count: 26