Surgery News and Dexamethazone Gripes



Dexamethazone

The side effects of dexamethasone have been one of the worst parts of the whole process for me so far, at 16mg a day my tummy just got worse and worse. My IBS was not ready for this. Pretty much house bound most of the time. Also the weight gain and muscle wastage combined with moon face and acne is really a kick in the teeth for self esteem. Watching 2 years of hard work in the gym melt away to be replaced by man boobs and saggy skin at such an alarming rate. I really know there are far more important things happening but I just feel so disgusted by myself at the moment.

Thats the shallow superficial side effects. The joint pain and rib ache are also fairly difficult to deal with. I was told all this was fairly normal for dexamethasone so I’m pleased it’s just the drugs affecting me and hopefully this is all a temporary situation. Anyway long rant over.

On the upside, now that I have an oncologist willing to alter my intial drug regimen I’ve been told to lower the dose of the dex and so hopefully these unpleasant side effects will be reduced.

 Good Surgery News?


So the Multi-Disciplinary-Team meeting in Plymouth went ahead today as Cardiff had to cancel my appointment recently. They also seem to agree that the tumour is likely to be a low grade glioma however they feel its needs surgery because of its location pressing on the corpus callosum which if gets invaded is bad news. Unfortunately this location does make surgery much higher risk, but its do or die I guess? I think there is time for some more monitoring if i'd rather not have surgery now but i'm unable to work/go back to uni in my present condition so surgery sooner rather than later is my best bet I believe. This would probably be an awake craniotomy apparently which is kind of exciting I guess.

the plan of action now is a meeting in plymouth with a neurosurgeon in two weeks time followed by functional brain MRI and DTI imaging in bristol to assess the brain tissue function around the tumour in preparation for biopsy and surgery. as a radiographer, don't get better than that!

about DTI and awake Craniotomies:

http://www.neurography.com/about-mr-neurography/84-diffusion-tensor-imaging-now-available

http://www.braintumoursurgery.co.uk/awake-craniotomy.html

a guy who youtubed his own surgery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqVpqMv2YUo#t=237

 https://twitter.com/CharlesTrippy


Other

will probably still be returning to cardiff to sort out my house at some point next week. good health providing. need to clear my room and make it available for any tenants who would like a lovely place in cardiff to stay? its in africa gardens if anyone is interested. also want to go see my girlfriend on her birthday and let our families finally meet :)

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