MRI Results and Radiotherapy Meeting

I had a call from Patsy between the time of my day curve/MRI and my Radiology meeting. She said my day curve showed my levels were still too low and I should increase my morning doseage to 15mg and my MRI results were 'what they were expecting' and radiotherapy was still advised.

I went in on the 19th September to meet with the man I'd be under during my radiotherapy. Doctor Ben Taylor. What a man! I loved him!! I couldnt (and still cant) put my finger on it but i really really warmed to him. He was hairy but bald with a friendly face and a very non-patronising manner. He started off by explaining why he thinks radiotherapy is needed. He explained that my Ki67 rating (the rate of cell division/growth) came back as 15 from the biopsy back in May, showing that it was very aggressive. He said normally in a case like me they would expect a rating of 3 or 4, he said anything over 10 should be monitored closely and is aggressive and worrying and he said cancers are 15 or above. Later in the car on the way home I asked my mum why they keep reminding me that I've not got cancer when my tumor seems to have all the characteristics of it... She said the only thing separating me and the big C word is that it can't spread to other parts of my body. I could be sad that I come so close to such a sad disease but honestly i feel lucky.

Ben went on to show me my MRI to help him explain a bit more:

 
So here is my brain. The top one doesnt really show anything of interest I just thought my eyeballs were funny. The bottom one i think is as if you had cut my face off. The two dark circles in the middle are the main arteries supplying blood to the brain. You can see a sideways wishbone shaped dark bit (mass) around the artery on the right (which is actually my left). The doctors said this is probably just scar tissue but it could be regrowth- they would only know if they operated again. Due to its location and the fact it is probably just scar tissue the doctors would prefer radiotherapy.

I will not be having gamma knife (or another kind that I forgot the name of) as those treat very tiny areas and they want treat the whole area in between my brain to be sure no traces of Timmy are alive as he could reproduce rapidly. Ben will calculate the exact amount of radiation needed to kill the area and split it up so I have exactly the right amount each day for six weeks. He explained the reason it is such a long time is because the tumour (and whats left of my pituitary gland, sigh) need a lot of radiation to be killed. If this was given to me all at once, the pathways to the pituitary gland will also be killed (one beam from each temple and one slap bang in the middle of my forehead). The brain itself and tissue around it will repair themselves at a faster rate, meaning we can attack them a little bit every day and every day they will be able to get back to normal. However, the tumour and the pituitary gland is slower, so we can damage, damage again the next day, cause more damage the next day and then the next and so on until it is so damaged it is destroyed.

...Thats the plan anyway. Ben warned me of the risks:
- I could develop cataracts (a grey blurring of sight that can be fixed with laser eye surgery) later in life.
- strokes later in life
- and a small 'theoretical' possibility that I could develop a malignant tumour in the treated area (but not proven)
...I hate that part of the meeting.

I shall have a mask moulded for me in 8 days and radiotherapy shall then commence. And then after that fingers crossed NO MORE INTERVENTION!!!!