I feel like I've been punched in the gut, knocked down and then kicked around for a while. I got back from class yesterday--all happy that it was Friday and a fun weekend lay ahead--and checked my email. There was one from Meg, Ty's mom, informing me that he had his scans this week and the tumor is back. He'll be starting another year of chemo next Thursday. I quickly emailed her back, offering to go entertain Nate for the day or hang out at the hospital with Ty so they can have a break sometime and asking for a little more specifics about the relapse. Then I proceeded to curse life for the next two hours while I went to seminar. Just what I needed... listening to a talk about tumor suppressor genes and cancer enzymes. :-\
Luckily, when I got back, there was already a response to my email, so I figured since that meant they were definitely home, I should just call. I'm glad I did; it helped me feel much better. Ty has a brain stem ganglioglioma. Its actually only partially cancerous. The "ganglio" part is totally benign; the "glioma" part, however, is not. Luckily, the combo-type tumor makes it pretty low-grade, so all the worst-case scenarios I was mulling during seminar (i.e. disease taking off and other assorted horrible things) are rather unlikely for the time being.
The problem, however, is that since its in his brainstem, they will NEVER get to remove the whole tumor. Can't just go hacking all willy nilly in there. Even for "inoperable" abdomenal tumors, for example, there is always a surgeon somewhere that will take it out with no problem. And he could have a massive twitch while cutting it out and nick something without the world ending. There's no room for massive twitching...or much surgery at all... in the brainstem, so microscopic amounts of the tumor will always be there. Those microtumors were the target of Ty's first year of chemo, but unfortunately, it didn't work so well and they've started growing again. So back to the chemo. Maybe by the time he's finished it (he'll be almost 7), they'll consider him eligible for some radiation, which, I think, is much better at zapping the little bits that are left. But he's still so little, ugh.
Also, adding to my boycott of life, we had a camper, Katherine , die this week... of the completely cancerous version of Ty's tumor. Again, I say, ugh!
Luckily, when I got back, there was already a response to my email, so I figured since that meant they were definitely home, I should just call. I'm glad I did; it helped me feel much better. Ty has a brain stem ganglioglioma. Its actually only partially cancerous. The "ganglio" part is totally benign; the "glioma" part, however, is not. Luckily, the combo-type tumor makes it pretty low-grade, so all the worst-case scenarios I was mulling during seminar (i.e. disease taking off and other assorted horrible things) are rather unlikely for the time being.
The problem, however, is that since its in his brainstem, they will NEVER get to remove the whole tumor. Can't just go hacking all willy nilly in there. Even for "inoperable" abdomenal tumors, for example, there is always a surgeon somewhere that will take it out with no problem. And he could have a massive twitch while cutting it out and nick something without the world ending. There's no room for massive twitching...or much surgery at all... in the brainstem, so microscopic amounts of the tumor will always be there. Those microtumors were the target of Ty's first year of chemo, but unfortunately, it didn't work so well and they've started growing again. So back to the chemo. Maybe by the time he's finished it (he'll be almost 7), they'll consider him eligible for some radiation, which, I think, is much better at zapping the little bits that are left. But he's still so little, ugh.
Also, adding to my boycott of life, we had a camper, Katherine , die this week... of the completely cancerous version of Ty's tumor. Again, I say, ugh!
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