A month ago my husband (41) had a tumor resection of a GBM in the left temporal/frontal lobe. He is still recovering from surgery and has begun cancer treatment (temodar& radiation) a week ago. He has a previous accident injury where he has struggled with neck pain for ten years. He has been on suboxone for probably 7 years now. He is currently taking his suboxone but is not getting any relief for his head pain.
My husband has had 27 radiation treatments, then 11 rounds of Temodar 1 1/2 years later for a recurrence of the tumor. The tumor recurred in the 11th round of the chemo and he had Gamma Knife surgery (Aug. 2009). Now the tumor has recurred a third time and they are trying Temodar again. What other treatment options would you consider at this point?
My husband was diagnosed with gbm stage 4 September 2010 he was operated on 2days after it was found, we thought he had a stroke, he had radiation and chemo at the same time in October 2010 for 6wks. he has started another course of chemo in tablet form,this began in January this year 2011 his last course of treatment will be March the 18th.
Apparently its in two places, frontal cortex and thallamus and hence surgery was ruled out. She is on 4th week of radiation [6week plan] and plan to start chemo next week. Now she is experiencing headache and nausea. She is not on steroids. Is this normal? are we missing something? What are we to expect in the near future? Any guidance is appreciated.
part is problematic cause healthcare here works in such a way that we need their official statement before progressing with the treatment and for that they need to do a joint consultation, for which they need the histopathology results.
Totalling it all up, it looks like we'll be able to have an appointment with the oncologist (which is a mandatory step before starting RT around here) not sooner than in the last week of April.
Stefanie,
If you're still out there, I'm wondering if you got a second opinion? My husband was initially told that his GBM was inoperable, but the second neurosurgeon disagreed and operated. His GBM was over 7 cm and the surgery removed 99%. (However, If we'd had an earlier diagnosis, we'd have tried more natural methods - alkaline diet, for instance.
t have to remove the tumor for by Tocagen. They have the trials at UCLA, UCSF, and UCSD and maybe other places and it sounds promising. If you don't have GBM I thought I would try. I have vertigo but not due to a shunt. It is due to my migraines and they use Topamax to control it. Topamax works on seizures too so it could possible help if that is the cause. It is possible the tumor is hitting on a place that is causing the vertigo. I hope this helps.
my wife is a brain tumor survivor with no surgery, just radiation and chemo. in 1998. she is now struggling with memory loss tremors, walking vision etc. she is now age 65. her doctor has her on25mg toprol, 40mg simvastatin, 25mg levothyroxin,and 2.5mg ambeim. her neurologist has her on depakote er 500mg once per day and 10mg namenta twice per day. seems to me that the side effects of most of the doctor's meds.
Hi
I also have complex partial seizures which are being controlled w/anti seizure meds. Along w/1000 ml of Keppra I am taking 400 ml of Lamictal. I have a meningioma in the left petrous apex, meckle's cave and clivas... I had gamma knife radiation in 2002 and the tumor went from 2.6 x 2.2 x1.0 cm to 2.0 x 2.0 x .9 presently. The only symptoms I had at the time of diagnosis was left sided facial tingling. I now have epilepsy, trigeminal pain and severe headaches...
Since the diagnosis of Glioblastoma grade 4 in August, my husband has had the tumor removed and completed the round of radiation and chemotherapy - temodar. Recently I have noticed him being very short fused and argumentative. The slightest thing sets him off as if he had been personally attack. I have also noticed depression setting in. I'm assuming this is all part of the treatment and diagnosis.
3) Then after finishing 33 radiations He started Chemo with Temodal 250 mg. He used to take it for 5 continuous days and will get 28 days off. He continued this for 6 months and the tumor was not visible in May 2003 MRI.
4) We stopped this chemo for 3 months after 6 cycles. When we came back on August 2003 to hospital the tumor came back. Hw started taking 350 mg Temodal and continued it for 4 more cycles.
5) After increasing the dose also it has gowned a little.
s interpretation of this report is that your father has had a lot of radiation. The radiation has had a lot of side effects now - and they are showing up on the MRI.
He has some necrosis - dead tissue. There is some calcification - hardening. He has some edema. The white matter changes can often be attributed to stroke but here they are saying it is radiation. He has no evidence of stroke.
my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family my father also has stage 4 and we found out in july and he had a 1/4 of his brain removed and friday we found out 2 have come back and it is so hard to go threw,we have had all the ups and downs and he did the radiation and chemo that have taken there toll on him for sure and it is a hard battle I only wish you peace in all of this,we are preparing for our last Christmas and its very sad and my father is only 60 and he has been my whole world
I posted a LOT in 1998 or so, under the Addiction forum. During my back surgery, I got into trouble with taking too much vicodin,and the folks on the forum here held my cyber hand and helped me get back on my feet. I'm recovered from that part of my problem now, but do need to take pain medication to manage the large and overwhelming pain of brain surgery and cancer.
It was and probably still is a great forum.
Hello and hope you are doing well.
Diabetes can affect the kidneys and cause nephropathy. The earliest indication of this is microalbimnuria. The hyperglycemia produces increased matrix production and thickening of the of the glomerular basement membrane (GBM). This causes the nephropathy. This in turn causes systemic hypertension. To prevent further damage, he will have to take medications regularly and check his blood sugars to ensure it is in the normal range of 80-120mg/dl.
Before your treatments start, the radiation team will take careful measurements to determine the correct angles for aiming the radiation beams and the proper dose of radiation. They will make some ink marks or small tattoos on your skin that they will use later as a guide to focus the radiation on the right area. You may want to talk to your health care team to find out if these marks will be permanent.
I was recently hopsitalized for intraabdominal bleeding, unknown origin. Hemoglobin levels got down to 9.7 but stablized at 10.5 when I was released. Last blood count is 11.8. I have seen my GP, who's done EKG - normal, X-ray (as I"m experiencing low back pain on the right side), I had catscans done at the hopsital that confirmed the blood in my stomach, scan was done of my Chest - Normal.
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