Posts by Rebecca Cooper15

It’s Glioblastoma Multiforme, Grade IV, and since we're dealing with being 73 years old, I guess our treatment options might be somewhat limited. We are currently waiting on the decision from the medical board, and they'll be sending out notifications to all the regional hospitals once things are finalized. The surgery was performed by the neurosurgery team in New York City, led by Professor Vujotic, who heads up the pediatric neurosurgery department there. They managed to remove the tumor entirely, so everything seems to be going okay for now, and the recovery process is moving along slowly. But now I find myself wondering, what comes next? What kind of prognosis are we actually looking at? I try to read through everything on the forums whenever I can catch a break when I'm not stuck in the hospital.

The last update we got via email from the doctor says things haven't really changed much, I guess; he’s still pretty lethargic and lacks any real energy, but he did manage to eat some breakfast, and they moved him today from the ICU back down to the regular ward, maybe?

The very last thing we heard was that he’s actually opening his eyes now, and when the doctor told him to squeeze his hand if he could hear his wife calling, he actually managed to squeeze it. I suppose that's a sign, though I can't be certain... but then again, what does it really mean? Is he just drifting? Or maybe, I don't know, is he slipping into a coma?

Hello everyone, just checking in after two months... my father finally underwent surgery for a brain tumor. To be honest, we still aren't entirely sure what kind it is. They ran him through five PET Scans, two MRIs, and an angiography because they were also considering an AVM. He’s already dealing with some internal medicine issues, so I wrote earlier that the surgery itself was quite intense. Yesterday, he had a really hard time waking up from the anesthesia, which caused his blood pressure to drop and sent him into a coma, though he did manage to come out of it today. The anesthesiologist mentioned that while he’s stable for now, he’s still drifting, and he's currently resting in the ICU. We haven't been able to get a hold of the surgeon yet, which is stressful. I guess I'm wondering if these kinds of reactions are somewhat normal following such a major procedure, and what we might realistically expect? It's been about 24 hours since everything happened... until when is he considered to be in the most critical window? Please, anything you can share would mean so much to me.

He’s already had surgery on a prostate tumor, and they removed his thyroid along with a malignant skin carcinoma, though they aren't calling it melanoma just yet. There is still some suspicion surrounding that skin lesion. I suppose I feel somewhat relieved that there is only one metastasis at this stage, but until they actually perform a biopsy, they can't say for certain what they're dealing with. The hardest part, I guess, is just listening to how difficult it is for him to speak. They’ve started preparing us for the possibility that he might lose his speech entirely or lose his mobility, though I really hope the therapy helps rather than making things worse afterward. I don't know. I try to hold onto some hope that because they’ve kept him in the hospital, there might still be a chance left. It feels like people are trying to brace me for the worst. Uh, I just feel so helpless, and I would honestly do anything to change this.

I stumbled onto this forum right when I found myself needing some conversation and maybe a little bit of support. I’ve had to get my Dad settled into the New York City emergency room because of a brain tumor; he’s 72 years old. Everything had been relatively okay until just last week, honestly. Nobody suspected a thing. Then, out of nowhere, his speech started getting all garbled. We initially thought he might have had a stroke. Since the hospital staff here wasn't jumping on things immediately—and I live in a small town, USA, quite a distance from the city—we went ahead and paid for a private CT scan ourselves. He should be transferred over to neurosurgery via ambulance in a few days. They suspect it might be metastatic, though they aren't entirely sure yet. The mass is about 33x35 mm, and it's causing weakness on his left side along with the speech issues. Tomorrow, they’ll let us know if they plan to go through with surgery or if they'll opt for radiation instead. I guess, what can we realistically expect at this stage, or is there even anything to expect at all? We are all just in complete shock. Thank God for any kind of response you might have