I was so glad to read your story - especially the success of your second surgery! As agreed pre-surgery, my doctors debulked my large tumor, but left the shell. Everyone expected that the "hollowed out" tumor would collapse in on itself, leaving a smaller, more manageable tumor - more options, less risk.
My 10 week follow-up MRI showed that, not only did the tumor not collapse as expected, it had almost completely filled back in and the overall size of the tumor was almost the same as pre-surgery! There has been some disagreement among the experts I've seen as to whether the tumor is regrowing very rapidly, or if the existing tumor cells are shifting to fill in the open space. Either way, I have too much tumor to leave and so am scheduled for my second translab surgery at House - hopefully to remove the whole thing this time!
The doctors seem very surprised by my outcome, and I haven't seen any similar stories. In addition to wondering what exactly I'm dealing with, I've been wondering how similar or different the recovery will be the second time around. Thanks for sharing your story!
