Good News & Bad News

So it seems that with a skillful combination of wishful thinking and hearing only what I wanted to hear, I may have misunderstood the last diagnosis. I guess what the neurosurgeon really said was they "may have gotten it all". May being the operative word.This is what I found out on my recent visit to my oncologist (the lady who "may" turn my into the Hulk with gamma rays). As it turns out we are back to the original plan where they did in fact leave a small amount of the tumors in my brain (for memory purposes remember?). So now I will be going back to the oncologist at the Pencer Brain Tumor Centre in the Princess Margaret Hospital for radiation treatments in the near future.The treatments themselves won't last long (just a couple of minutes) but I get to go every day for about 20 days. It's not something I'm especially looking forward to but like I've said before, I've come this far, what the Hell? I really can't complain, there were a lot of people at the Centre who had it a lot worse than I do. I'm just happy to be with my family and I have the rare opportunity to spend the entire summer with my kids. But do you know what the best part of it is? I still fell better than I have in a VERY long time. So I might not feel that great for a little while but like I said; it could be worse.They also checked my vision and while my peripheral is not where it should be, they told me that it will continue to improve as time goes on. I've also still got to see and endocrinologist because it seems that my pituitary gland was damaged by one of the tumors. This means that I will need to go on "hormone replacements" so if I start to grow bumps where there shouldn't be any you may not hear from me for a while (that's the good news).

Yes I am A Rock Star...

Either that or very luck; but I prefer Rock Star. I went for my follow-up with the specialist today and things went better than expected. The Doctor was even suprised at how well everything is going. He showed me my MRI from last Monday and he thinks they may have gotten everything durring the operation. I still have to see an oncologist but I may not need radiation (boo hoo). Now I really feel great. It's as if there has been a big weight lifted off my shoulders (besides the tumors).What did I tell you? There's nothing to it.Thanks again for all of the kind words and support. You are all great friends and I thank God for that every day.

MRI's Are Fun And Easy!

Well I went for my latest MRI on Monday and I thought it would be a piece of cake. The whole time I was thinking "How hard can an MRI be? All I have to do is lay there and maybe get a little shut-eye while the machine does the work." I got a little shut-eye alright.As soon as I got there I had to fill out a 2 page questionaire asking me everything from family history to allergies. The one question that caught my eye was whether or not I had any tatoos. Having a couple I asked the nurse why this was important and it turns out that sometimes they can start to heat up durring the scanning so if I started to feel any burning sensations I was to please let them know. It's funny that this was the question that caught my eye because nothing happened. In fact it was another question that should have gotten my attention.You know when you're filling out those long questionaires and you start to go into auto-pilot? You start going down the list at speed checking "NO" to everything? That's what I did. One of the questions that I maybe shoul've paid a little more attention to was "Did you have any reaction to the radioactive dye durring your last MRI?" Like I said I was thinking:"Nah, piece of cake". Well it turns out I did have a reaction the last time but because the tumors affected my memory I totally forgot. Guess how fast those sweet memories came flooding back? So there I was with my head strapped down and an I.V. of radioactive dye hooked up to my arm while my body was dunked sideways into this giant beer can and I started feeling a little woosey. Doesn't get much more relaxing than that. I will tell you one thing though; there was no way I was going to stop and do it all over again so I kept my eyes closed, breathed deeply and took it for the 25 minutes it took for them to finish the fashion shoot with my bean. Needless to say I felt like a great big bag of "something" for the rest of the day but it's done.I go back to see the speacialist this monday to get the results and then I start treatment on what's left of the stubborn little buggers. I'm not looking forward to it but hey, I've come this far why not go whole hog? Seriously though, I know it will be over in no time and then I can get back to what is considered normal for me. On the bright side of things, how many people get the summer off? Suckers!

Another quick update:

I go for my next MRI on June 16 and they will determine from that what exactly is left for the radiation treatments (I've already done the Hulk jokes and I know it's not easy being green). From there I go to the eye specialist on June 27th so they can see what damage has been done to my vision (you can all start calling me Col. Steve Austin when I get my new bionic eye). And finally I go to the Endocrinologist on the 29th for them to check out the pituitary gland that was damaged by one of the tumors (I can't think of a joke for this one - although I am open to suggestions).Thanks again to everyone for all of they kind words and warm wishes. I am still feeling great and I know everything is working out.Keep the faith,Sean

You can't get rid of me that easily!

I just wanted to reach out to everyone who sent me the kind thoughts and warm wishes. It really means a lot. I also wanted to let everyone know that I'm doing great and I really fell so much better than how I did before the ice cream scoop. For those of you who are interested I have attached the full story below;About six months ago I started losing vision in my right eye and I could not stay awake no matter how hard I tried. By the end of February I had completely lost vision in my one eye and I was literally sleeping 23 hours a day. I even fell asleep in the doctor's office during a check-up. As an added bonus I had no short-term memory whatsoever. I was repeating myself and asking the same questions over and over. I was even starting to forget my family. This is when they figured there was definitely something wrong and an MRI was ordered. It turned out that I had two brain tumors. One pressing against the optic nerve and the other pressing against the pituitary gland (affecting everything from my thyroid to my sleep patterns). Thankfully an appointment was made for surgery on that Thursday and I was in for my operation the following Monday (April Fool's Day believe it or not).The operation was done at Toronto Western by Dr. Bernstein and a team of six others. During the pre-op however they discovered that there was also a cyst at the base of the skull which was also taking up room. It was decided that two teams would work at the same time (one on the tumors and one on the cyst) which cut the operation from 12 - 15 hours to 7 and a half. To make a long story short (I know - too late), after 4 hours they finally found the nodules to the tumors which were both the size of baseballs and they pulled them out through openings the size of green peas between an optic nerve and a main artery while draining the cyst at the same time.All of this was done by 7:00 p.m. and by 8:30 p.m. I was calling home to let them know I was feeling okay and not to worry. The next morning I was up having breakfast and doing my crossword puzzle as usual. Today I feel great. I feels as if I've had a tension headache for the past six months and now it's just gone. I am clear headed, I have all of the vision back in my right eye and although there is still a memory gap during the couple of months leading up to the operation, everything seems to be fine now (no more excuses). I am happy. Amy and the rest of the family have been unbelievable. It has brought a whole new strength and bond that will never be broken. I honestly think that I have had it the easiest out of everyone.Right now the best part of every day is just walking the kids the the bus stop in the morning and giving them a big hug and kiss before they go. Every day has been a great day and they are only going to get better.I hope I haven't taken up too much of you time but after all the kind words and warm wishes I wanted to give everyone a personal thank-you and update.