Last year was four years after subtotal resection of the tumor and the remnant showed progression. On Sept 19th this year, the 5 year MRI showed further progression and the Cleveland Clinic Gamma Knife Center recommends
GK. The procedure is tomorrow morning with the MRI at 7:30 am.
The Clinic is one of the few hospitals accredited to teach GK with the Perfexion unit and one of the two doctors involved, Dr Barnett (like Dr Lundsford,) had a fellowship in GK at the Karolinska Institute, the Swedish Hospital where Lars Leksall first used GK to treat brain tumors. Barnett is also the co-director of the Gamma Knife Center and a board neurosurgeon.
The original tumor was large and had drastically thinned my facial nerve in places. That fact increases the risk of facial complications from the usual 1% of patients to 5% in Barnett's estimation. He said the facial nerve is very resilient and any weakness post treatment will be amenable to immediate steroid use, whenever the weakness arises and I will have a script for that when I leave as it must be started the first 24 hours. That all said, he does not expect complications.
After the surgery at age 65, I hoped to get 5 years without further treatment and I did just that.
