37 year old 1 week away from CK at Stanford

[drippsrn]

Hello, I am new to this forum and appreciate everybody that has contributed to it. I was diagnosed with a 1.5cm AN in February during an MRI to evaluate my thyroid (long story). I had been having ringing in my ears but Dr's thought it was allergy related. Anyway, I consulted with Dr. Chang and Dr. Hancock at Stanford and both, without a doubt, recommended CK treatment instead of surgery. I only have minimal hearing loss and have only had 3 to 4 short episodes of dizziness. I will be going "under the knife" on 5/18 - 5/20. I have peace about my treatment decision but of course as the time gets closer the nerves kick in.
 I listened to a webinar and it was recommended that radiation not be done on younger patients and so of course that made me more nervous. Any 30 or 40 year olds out there that opted for radiation instead of surgery? Brain surgery terrified me.

[caryawilson]

It's always easy to second guess our decisions. I've heard that younger patients  should opt for surgery. I think k this is due to the risk if radiation does not kill the tumor and it regrows, it makes surgery more difficult if the tumor does NOT die. Since you are young the tumor will have a long time to grow and radiationay make the tumor harder to surgically remove since the radiation makes the tumor stickier.

However, if CK kills the tumor.. No issues.  You have a small tumor and sounds like CK is right for you. I had surgery and the recovery is long and I had a long list of complications. This is NOT a simple surgery. I had a 5 cm hole drilled in my head.

Sounds like you've done your homework, and Stanford is a great facility.  Great decision.

[GaryWNT]

Congratulations on choosing a great team at Stanford! I had CK with Dr. Chang and Dr. Hancock at Stanford in November, 2015. I just had my 6 month MRI which showed evidence of central necrosis (tumor dying), no change in tumor size, no evidence of hemorrhage or edema. I hope you have similar results! If you have any questions, feel free to PM me or ask me here. You are in the hands of a great hospital.
Best wishes!
Gary

[SP]

Congratulations on reaching a treatment decision. Everyone's journey is unique as we all come with our own unique understanding and bias towards things.  I am 44yo and took the journey to Stanford CK in August 2015, as i too wanted to avoid the surgery...

Stanford is an outstanding facility! My doctors ; Dr Chang & Dr Soltys - were also outstanding.

I've posted the link to my story here:
https://www.anausa.org/smf/index.php?topic=22640.msg979769729#msg979769729

All treatment options have risks & side effects & i am riding out some post treatment effects at the moment.
Right now, I'm basically waiting to see my neurosurgeon for my 6 month MRI follow up (Feb 2016) & additional follow up MRI (May 2016) in which they also did CSF flow studies... I'm still happy with my decision to go CK,  as the surgical alternatives had much more major repercussions ... wishing the best of success & good health

[tdlight]

dripprsn - How did it go for you?  Everything you expected; surprises?  You are in good hands with that team.

Don't think twice, it's alright - Terry

[Catana]

Hi Drippsrn,

Did you end up having CK and what has your experience been so far?  I'm 39 and leaning toward CK with Dr. Chang for my 2.5cm AN diagnosed about a month ago.  Definitely have had opinions against it given my age and risk for secondary malignancy down the road, but a large study I read does not substantiate this risk (2007 study out of the UK with a 2011 update, lead author J. Rowe, "Risk of Malignancy after Gamma Knife SRS").

Thanks!  Carrie