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Down in the Dumps


Mary

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My sisters goes for Gamma Knife on her brain lession Monday. I should see this as a positive step forward. However I'm just feeling depressed.I come from a large family, youngest of eight and we all seem to have our own opinion about what is best for Charlotte. I realize no one knows exactly the right course of therapy. Her doctors are offering her chemo and that's it. She was all ready to send her scans off to Staten Island and Wake Forrest when my oldest sister called her. She discouraged Charlotte from the Staten Island option claiming IMRT was the same thing as stereotactic body radiosurgery. I don't think it is, perhaps one of you know?

Barely keeping the faith,

Mary

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Mary,

I don't have the answer to your question but if my husband, Bill, had the opportunity to do stereotactic body radiosurgery I would suggest that he do it in a heartbeat. I think Staten Island is the only place doing it. Bill had stereotactic radiosurgery to his brain tumor and it reduced it in size over 50%.

Best wishes to you and hopefully you will have answers and some peace of mind soon.

Peg

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Mary,

My husband had stereotactic radiosurgery on 3 of his 5 brain lesions about 1 month ago. It was a long day, however well worth it! There was little to no recovery. We went for a nice walk the next morning. He has not had a follow up MRI quite yet, but they told us that considering the size of his lesions...they felt they would be "taken care of".

My prayers are with your sister and family...

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Mary,

This link may provide more information for you

http://www.cancerguide.org/unconv_conv.html

http://www.cancercenter.com/treatmentOp ... ult.cfm/50

What does your sister want? It is hard being on the sidelines. I wanted my mom to get a vaccine based on GM-CSF, or P53 or at least something other than the one she was receiving (CEA and another target). However, those were only available outside of Ohio. I might have been able to find one at NCI since I live in Maryland, but even then I was not sure if she wanted to leave her home.

Best of luck

God Bless.

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Mary -

FYI - my sister had the Gamma Knife surgery 1 1/2 years ago - no side effects, no recovery time (went to work the next day), and, so far, no more brain mets.

I don't know what IMRT is, can't help with that.

I'm hoping that your sister also has a good response to the gamma knife & go on to meet whatever challenges lay ahead, one by one.

By the way, we are two of seven kids. Right now, it still doesn't seem like enough.

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Guest katsmum

Hi Mary

My dad had IMRT (Intense Modulated Radiation Therapy). It delivers the radiation specifically to the tumour. My dad went everyday for 10 weeks - each session lasting about 20 minutes where he had to lay as still as possible. He had a large tumour (about the size of a margarine lid) and was originally told it was too large to operate but it shrunk drastically and he had surgery less than a year later. He had complications from the surgery that he is now recovering from but he is cancer free.

Good luck

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