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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 09 September 2008 |
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The message that follows is from Stacey May, with some troubling news about our classmate Mark. Please read her note and remember the Mays in your prayers.
September 5, 2008
We had 2 doctor appointments on Tuesday of this week. The first appointment was with a Neuro-Oncologist, Dr Casino. He oversees all the different parts to his patient’s treatment which would include: Surgery, Radiation and Chemo Therapy.
His opinion was very similar to what we heard at Univ of IA, which was a resection (brain surgery to remove tumor) followed up with radiation administered 5 days a week for 6 weeks (which is 1 week less then what IA recommended) and Oral Chemotherapy that may be administered for up to a year.
When then met with Dr. Parney, Neurosurgeon. He was very informative and his experience is very impressive. He is actually both a Neuro-Oncologist and Neurosurgeon with his PHD. He is doing research on brain tumors. He specializes in brain tumor surgery specifically when the motor cortex is involved. He went into great length of what the process would be. His belief is that the gold standard for surgery would be one in which Mark would be sedated, but awake in order to enhance mapping of the nerves in and around the tumor. That is what he would perform. He is confidant he could remove the majority of Mark’s tumor with minimal permanent risk. If Mark had the surgery at Mayo Clinic we would most likely go up on Wednesday afternoon for testing to take place on Thursday, and followed by surgery on Friday. He would be in Intensive Care for 24 hours and then moved to a regular room for another 3-4 days and then his recovery would be over the next 6 weeks. He would be able to start radiation 3-4 weeks after the surgery.
Based in our visit at Mayo we would like to have the surgery done there. However, Mayo Clinic is NOT in our Insurance network, so we have been doing the mad scramble to try and get the surgery covered as an in-network provider under an exception. We are moving along in the process after a zillion phone calls to our local doctors, Dr Parney’s nurse, John Deere and United Health. We are hoping to hear back from United Health by early next week.
If we do get the approval for Mayo Clinic Mark would have the surgery up there but then we would do the radiation and Chemo at Univ of IA. Univ of IA is about 80 miles closer to home than Mayo Clinic and would be more convenient for the daily trips for radiation treatments.
Mark is feeling anxious about moving ahead with treatment and getting started on fighting this so each day that goes by is frustrating. It is hard to believe that it has been 7 weeks since Mark had his 1st seizure.
So keep us in your prayers that we get answers soon and get started on Mark’s treatment.
Love,
Stacey |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 28 September 2008 )
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