Hello To All,
For all of those that are not familiar with Chelsea's AN story, maybe it's in the archives, she had a very large AN with brain stem compression and hydrocephalus. She had several surgeries in the summer of 2006 with many complications which kept her in the hospital for 3 months. There was approx. 2cm X 2cm X 2.7cm of the tumor left behind because the tumor itself was very unusual as it was as hard as a rock and stuck to her brain stem area. About a month after leaving the hospital she had 28 sessions of FSR in hopes it would stop the growth. So here is what has been happening.
It has been a while since I've posted any news on Chelsea. The last time I posted an update with how well she was doing, June 2007, she ended up in the hospital within a few days with post radiation swelling that was making her very sick. Since then she has been doing great and was hoping to put this all behind her. She has SSD and was fortunate not to have any real facial or balance issues to deal with after her recovery.
Well, in early fall she started her second year at the University and was feeling extremely fatigued. By November she was having increased head pain and by the end of Nov. she was throwing up off and on for about a week with terrible headaches and has lost 20 lbs since mid-Nov. We called the neurosurgeon and after discussing her symptoms he felt that it was not due to her shunt. So we figured she probably had a good case of the flu and was stressing over finals. Her neurosurgeon wanted to schedule an MRI in Jan. and check on things. Before her scheduled MRI could happen we had to take her to the ER as the pain had become unbearable. That was on Jan 4th. They did an MRI and reset her shunt to a different setting and sent her home. That seemed to do the trick. Her headaches were manageable with vicoden/asprin but she still had some nausea and dizziness. We went for her follow-up last Thursday and got the bad news. The MRI report shows regrowth. The measurements are 2.7 cm X 2.5 cm X 3.9 cm. They can also see mass effect on the 4th ventricle. She had an MRI in Aug. 2008 for the radiation doc and there was a slight change but it fell within the range of +/-2mm margin and the tumor looked stable. He felt that she could repeat the scan once a year instead of every 6 months and we were on our way. I guess this growth really surprised them too.
Of course we are in shock. They are going to have her do another MRI in May and at that time we'll figure out what to do. Chelsea does not want to introduce anymore radiation to her body. She is only 20 and she is afraid of the possibility of secondary cancer due to the treatments. Besides, the size of the tumor might not allow her to be a candidate anyway. The neurosurgeon felt that another resection surgery might be necessary, maybe in June after she gets out of school.
So, is there anyone out there that has had a failed radiosurgery/radiotherapy after resection surgery?
Also, has anyone heard from or about Taylor lately? I last read that she also was having regrowth and was going to do radiation during her Christmas break. I emailed them but have never heard back.
Could these young ones go through much more?
?
Michelle
