Today was the 3 month follow-up MRI and doctor appointment after Les's brain surgery to remove a cavernoma. All looks good, and he needs annual follow-ups until he is 30. Wow! He just turned 16 two weeks ago.
As you can see, brain cancer never really goes away - the actual cancer can go away, but the lingering late effects keep revisiting in various forms. I guess there are two types of cavernomas. The "spontaneous" kind get removed, followed up for a year or two and that's it. Les does not have that kind. Les has "secondary" cavernomas. These are caused by radiation to the brain, which he had 7 weeks of, when he was four years old. These "secondary cavernomas" are unpredictable. Sometimes they show up, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they wait 10 or more years to show up, as in Les's case. Sometimes they show up, and as our doctor says, "they play nice", meaning they just sit there and nothing happens. Sometimes they get angry and ooze and cause seizures, which is what happened with one of Les's cavernomas last January. Yes, Les has more cavernomas, but so far they are "playing nice".
The good news is that they are NOT TUMORS. They are benign little nuisances which will keep us on our toes, but not in the Hem/Onc ward. Praise God for that!
As you can see, brain cancer never really goes away - the actual cancer can go away, but the lingering late effects keep revisiting in various forms. I guess there are two types of cavernomas. The "spontaneous" kind get removed, followed up for a year or two and that's it. Les does not have that kind. Les has "secondary" cavernomas. These are caused by radiation to the brain, which he had 7 weeks of, when he was four years old. These "secondary cavernomas" are unpredictable. Sometimes they show up, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they wait 10 or more years to show up, as in Les's case. Sometimes they show up, and as our doctor says, "they play nice", meaning they just sit there and nothing happens. Sometimes they get angry and ooze and cause seizures, which is what happened with one of Les's cavernomas last January. Yes, Les has more cavernomas, but so far they are "playing nice".
The good news is that they are NOT TUMORS. They are benign little nuisances which will keep us on our toes, but not in the Hem/Onc ward. Praise God for that!
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| Here's the MRI images. The left side is today and the right side is a couple days before surgery. The big circle in the right image is the cavermoma. |