wonky-eye.com

Two years ago today I was sitting in the Stanford Hospital waiting room worried that my husband might not make it through brain surgery. Since July 13, 2007 Travis has had too many medical appointments to count. He has been on too much medication, especially pain medication. He has been on Oxycontin, Duragesic pain patches, [...]

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Travis went to Palo Alto on Monday to have an MRI.  On Tuesday he saw Dr. Adler and was told that his tumor is completely gone.  As exciting as it is I still don’t think it has sunk in all the way. In my opinion, this is proof that CyberKnife radiation works.  It is the [...]

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The other night while doing my nightly research I came across the most wonderful article.  It was just published in February 2009. Dr. John Adler, the best neurosurgeon in the world (the surgeon who has been taking care of Travis) has reported that 13 consecutive patients with Trigeminal Schwannomas were treated with CyberKnife between 2003-2007.  [...]

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We got a call from Travis’s neurosurgeon.  He explained to us that the reason two treatments are needed is because the residual tumor is very close to Travis’s optic nerve.  To be safe the radiation should be broken up into two treatments.  Travis explained to his neurosurgeon that we could not really come back for [...]

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Today started early.  Travis had a CT Scan at 7:15am.  He took an Ativan before the appointment so that he could be relaxed.  We arrived at the Radiation Therapy unit and checked in.  They took us back into an area where they introduced their selves, took a picture of Travis for identification purposes, and started [...]

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Today we traveled up to Stanford.  Travis saw his neurosurgeon for the first time since the summer. He gave Travis’s progress a “B+”.  He said that he expects Travis’s eye to come back to normal.  He also expects his forehead to wrinkle again. Overall, the appointment went well.  We saw an MRI pre-surgery and compared it [...]

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I found some useful information on www.caregiver.org.  ©Family Caregiver Alliance http://www.caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=568   Definitions A brain tumor is a collection of damaged cells that multiply out of control within the brain. Also called a neoplasm, growth, mass or lesion, a brain tumor is classified as either primary or secondary (metastatic), and can be benign or malignant. [...]

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Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween!  I am writing today to show you that even though the diagnosis is life changing, life does go on.  I do my best to keep “business as usual” around here.  Being diagnosed does not mean your life is over, it just means that it is going to be a little [...]

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On average a brain tumor cost $200,000 or more.  50% of bankruptcy is because of medical care Healthcare (costs) are the #1 cause of homelessness Healthcare costs are the#1 cause of bankruptcy   addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwonky-eye.com%2F2007%2F09%2F27%2Ffacts-i-learned-on-oprah-today%2F’; addthis_title = ‘Facts+I+learned+on+Oprah+today’; addthis_pub = ”;

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Since last week Travis has not been feeling too well.  He describes to me that there is a lot of “tingling” and pain on the left side of his face, he has had many headaches, and he has been worn out.  He goes through these stages. Some days you would never know anything was wrong [...]

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