2007 April 19 Update

We just got through spending a very long, boring day at the hospital from 9 to 4 today waiting most of the time to see the next specialist.

Here is what we found out about surgery today:

Surgery is scheduled for 9:40 Pacific time - that is 12:40 Eastern, 11:40, Central and 10:40 Mountain time. We will arrive at 7:40 am. Dr. Edwards expects the surgery to be about 5 hours or so. He is going to go in the same way that he has gone in the past over Brians left ear. He thought he was going to be able to get to it pretty good. However, he said he will not take much of a margin around it because he can't differentiate what is healthy brain and when they start taking healthy brain, they start to take away what makes Brian himself.

He stressed that he is not so much concerned about the surgical procedure and its effects, but rather what we find and how we treat it. Brian has had many doses of chemotherapy and one of those types can only be given to a certain extent before you start to jeapordize creating a cancer elsewhere - leukemia, bone marrow, etc. So what follows is very important. The pathology will take a few days to get back - probably sometime on Monday. The neuro- oncology team at Stanford will review Brian's case here on Friday. Brian will meet with the neuro-oncologist while in the hospital or on Wednesday, if not. We have an official appointment on Wednesday, if he does not see us in the hospital. Dr. Edwards mentioned a few options, such as more radiation depending on what amount Brian has already had (they are reviewing this now), cyber-knife surgery (a radio-surgical technique), a different chemotherapy, etc. All will depend on the pathology. Everyone is very pleased at Brian's overall condition and if he does have problems with his right side, he always has his left which he uses for most things anyway. He is also still concerned about Brian's speech being affected by the surgery, but we will work through that if it happens.

On a different note, we are going out to eat some seafood tonight to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (today) with Brian's family.

Please pray for the surgery tomorrow, and for that pathology, pathology, pathology!!!

KEEP BELIEVING!!!!!