Hi All,
I don't post often, well actually I hardly post at all, but I have learned much by reading this forum and wanted to give back by sharing the results of my latest MRI for those who are weighing different treatment options and for those who have recently undergone GK treatment and would like a little encouragement.
It's been almost two years since I had GK at the Cleveland Clinic (New Years Eve – 2009) and I just had my 2 year follow-up on October 29th. I had a larger AN (3.3 cm) and was just under the threshold that they were using at the time, which was 3.5 cm, to be eligible for GK. I never received the actual measurements from my first annual follow-up, I just got a phone call later that afternoon informing me that everything was stable and it had actually shrunk a bit. Looking at this years report, I see that it had gone from 3.3 cm to 3.1 cm during that first year. Even better news this time around, it has reduced in size even further. Here is some of the text taken from the Radiologists report:
Heterogeneous enhancing extra-axial mass lesion centered within left cerebellopontine angle cistern is marginally decreased in size since prior examination measuring 2.7 transverse by 2.0 AP centimeters as opposed to 3.1 transverse by 2.3 AP centimeters. So, it appears that the AN has reduced in size by ~6mm.
And this little blurb on the report from my doc really made my day: Your tumor is responding well to treatment, and has shown good shrinkage over the past year. Please see me back with another MRI scan, and call my office if you have any further questions.
I was already SSD prior to treatment, which is what led to the diagnoses in the first place. My balance is a little worse now than it was before, but it's really not that big of an issue. I had a few dizzy spells about 6 months out that lasted for a few months, but those have gone away for the most part. Occasionally they'll come back, but it doesn’t seem to last long. I'm not convinced that the dizzy spells aren't related more to low blood pressure than anything else.
Anyway, I wanted to pass on the good news to all of the other “radio-headsâ€... Take care.
