The Naughty C Word

The naughty c word... CANCER...

Part of me had accepted that the bitch tumor was likely cancer, based on how quickly she had grown back, but it was something that I had never really wanted to completely admit - not to myself, not to my N., not to our families, and not to the rest of the world. I think I knew, but that I didn't want to say it outloud. I would always correct people when they said that I had had cancer the first time ... because I didn't, we caught it before it turned into cancer.

My oncologist  [and all of us] suspected that it was a grade 4 cancerous tumor this time. She grew back so fast and hard that I had to have somewhat emergency brain surgery to relieve pressure. [See ETV surgery post] Dr. Baskaya's NP confirmed initial bitchtumor grading yesterday as a grade 4.

It is ironic to me that I had [have?] brain cancer, but the bitch tumor was dead and removed before we ever even knew that I had it. This just further vindicates our decision to do the #bigassbrainsurgery. Now, we just need to beat that bitch back into the hole whence she came so that she can never come back out.

I woke up this morning so rested and ready to fight. I have down shifted into a whole new warrior woman mode.

Onto Battle Plan - Phase 2 (Burn the Bitch to the Ground) ...

Fight like hell.

[@crumblyz is an amazing human!]

Got a Lime in My Coconut

We met with my neurosurgeon Dr. Baskaya and his nurse practitioner this morning to go over surgery particulars and pre-op items. I also had my sutures removed from the ETV surgery last week.

#BigASSBrainSurgery is scheduled for the 18^th at 7:10 am. We will check-in at the hospital at 5:30 am, right as the surgery unit opens for the day. Surgery will last approximately 5-6 hours, depending on how much of the bitch tumor dr. baskaya is able to safely remove.  I will be in the neuro icu for at least a day, possibly all 5 days, but it will depend on how I’m recovering and if there is room/need for me on a general floor.

Dr. Baskaya will remove approximately a 5cm by 5cm piece of my skull for surgery. My skull will be reattached with titanium screws and possibly a plate or titanium mesh. From What I can determine from my latest mri report, the main bitch tumor is roughly the size of a lime [last time it was a small plum]. However, this time she brought friends that are trying to jump the bridge [corpus callosum] to the other hemisphere of my brain. Dr. Baskaya will try to remove as many of the friends as safely possible.

The goal of the surgery is to safely resect as much of the bitch tumor as possible. Any tissue removed will be sent to pathology to determine the best possible treatment route. Any bitch tumor tissue that dr. baskaya does not feel that he can safely remove will be left and later evicted by the chosen treatment method.

We are very confident in dr. baskaya’s abilities to safely remove a large portion of the bitch tumor and friends.

Fight like hell.