Friday, October 27, 2006

Angiogram and the sedatives reaction!

So we had our final set of tests on 25th. We were scheduled for the following tests
-Angiogram: to find out the blood circulation in the brain to help with the surgery, since the tumor is pushing on one of the main arteries.
-MRI: thinner cut mri to get a better idea of position and location of the tumor with respect to the arteries.
-CT scan: to evaluate any damage to soft tissue and bones.

All tests came out positive according to the doc. ie. the blood circulation by the other arteries in the brain is good, there is no damage to the soft tissue and it seems like the tumor has not started to feed on the artery yet.

These facts of course make the tumor a little easier to extract, but also tells us that it will still be slightly complex because of the location ie.
- pushing the right optic nerve and the chiasm,
- sitting very close to the pituitary gland,
- pushing on the carotid artery.

We also met with our neurologist and got some more referrals for the best neurosurgeons in the area for meningioma surgeries. We also spoke to a oncologist for radiation options. We have some more appointments scheduled within the next 3-4 days and hopefully after those we will be able to fix the surgery date.

Oh, i forgot to write up about the whole hospitalization experience with these tests. So I had to get these tests done under conscious sedation, which is a level lower than general anaesthesia in the sense, that you are just sleepy and can support your breathing etc, but you mostly dont remember whats going on.

So they took me to the radiology floor. And i dont know which idiot designed it. It was this compact no window floor which was extremely claustrophobic. And the mri machines which look like this http://brainimaging.waisman.wisc.edu/images/MRI.jpg, are usually placed in a really compact and dimly lit room. Not a friendly place for claustrophobics. So of course i was super anxious. But the meds worked like a charm. They gave me tons of the sedation meds because
a. i was so anxious
b. they dont have any history on me about what my capacity for the meds is.
The tests went fine( Vivek will tell you otherwise, that i was shouting at everyone even in that slumber most of the time ;)), but i dont remember a thing!!:) But as my luck with meds these days is, i had a reaction to the sedatives.. hehe. i puked a ton of times on Vivek and Nishant in the evening and night. So i had to stay in the hospital till i could take in some food. After 24 hours of no food, i finally took some in the next day and slowly things got back to normal and we got home at about 4 pm. It is amazing how the most trouble i have had is with the meds(previous 24 hour sleep post) and the tests(the first mri also gave me a day long headache, and now these tests). The tumor has had the least effect on my health and overall life.

Thanks to nishant who was there to help vivek out with the some trips for food and stuff, since we were so not prepared for the hospitalization. That got me thinking about the surgery and how we will need people to drive mom around or do some small errands since vivek will be stuck with me and will be mentally exhausted. I think Vivek will send out some requests once the surgery date is set to decide on helpers for each day! Moms gonna be her ein 5 days! Yey!!!

1 comment:

  1. Hi,

    Came across your blog from Vivek's blog. One of my friend's got a tumor removed couple of years back, and he is doing well. So, don't worry too much...things will be fine..Don't hesitate to ask for help any time...I have sent vivek my contact #...

    Nagendra

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