6 weeks after surgery, how long before cyberknife treatment?

[kelli]

Hello everyone             Wow, the past 6 weeks have been challenging! I'm experiencing severe headaches, left ear hearing loss and increased tinnitus and general aches and pains all over.  I saw the doctor last week for my follow up and he is sending me to Stanford to cyberknife the residual tumor.  He left behind 10% and wants me to radiate the rest.  Has anyone had surgery and then cyberknife?  If so, how long did you wait after surgery to radiate?  I'm just not sure I can handle any more trauma to my head right now.  Also, I am ready to have a child and wonder if the cyberknife will affect my pregnancy.  Is it smarter to wait a year or two and have a child and then have cyberknife? 
Thank you for any information you can share!
hugs, kelli

[Lorenzo]

Hi Kelli,

sorry to hear about your symptoms! Below is a link to the CyberKnife Support Group Forum, where doctors will answer all your questions. They are very helpful and respond very quickly. If you're going to Stanford, Dr Chang is based at Stanford and his team gave me my CK treatment.

Good luck with the rest of your treatment.

Regards, Lorenzo

[ppearl214]

psssst, hey, Lorenzo, the link would help, bucko!

http://www.cyberknifesupport.org/forum/

Hi Kelli and welcome.  Great team at Stanford, for microsurgery and CK.... I know of many here that have had both done there. You are in great hands there.  IMO, the dr's there (Dr. Adler, Dr. Chang, etc) are better qualified to answer your questions.....esp. regarding future preganacy.  Please keep us updated on how your appt goes and what they say about it.... many here may need to know.

Again, welcome!
Phyl

[Lorenzo]

o o o o o p s . . .

[sgerrard]

How many forum members does it take to post a web page link? 

By all means, ask the good doctors at the CK forum. Dr. Medbery will probably answer your question, he seems to the be quickest to respond. I'm pretty sure he will say that having CK would not affect a future pregnancy. CK is very focused radiation; the exposure is very low every where except the AN site.

Dr. Chang and the team at Stanford are great, if you go there they will take good care of you. CK is pretty easy going on your head, although I would want a little breather first if I had just had surgery, so that is understandable. Can you stall for a couple of months?

Best wishes on part two of your AN journey, I hope it all works out well.

Steve

[ppearl214]

How many forum members does it take to post a web page link? 

too many... we have a dr's note for short-term memory loss so we pray someone remembers to post it! 

[Jim Scott]

Hi, Kelli:

For what it's worth:

I had retrosigmoid approach surgery to remove approximately 50% of my 4.5 cm AN, then underwent FSR treatments three months later to kill the remaining tumor, as scheduled by my neurosurgeon with the agreement of the radiation oncologist.  They said they wanted to give me the time (90 days) to heal and recover from the surgery.  It worked out well.  The 26 treatments were painless, (very low-dose) and my last MRI scan showed definite necrosis and tumor shrinkage. 

I hope you have a similar experience. 

Jim

[lori67]

Be easy on Lorenzo - remember he's on the decaf now....

Kelli - good luck to you!  can't offer any advice on the CK, as I've never had it, but I certainly understand not wanting anyone messing with your head so soon!

Lori