Ben's Brain Tumour Blog

Brain:  i had a functional brain MRI last week. This was in London, and it comprised of an hour in the MRI scanner doing various movement tests and other cognitive tests such as word association. the idea being when i move my hand, blood will rush to the area of the brain controlling this and the scanner can identify its location in relation to the tumour. relatively simple test to do. shame about the 10 hour journey and nausea. I'm in a clinical trial now looking at the benefits of intra operative MRI.. i get the results in the clinic on the 9th of Jan. Heart:  i had an adenosine ecg this wednesday. worst experience of my life. they told me it would feel like a heart attack and would cause a lot of panic but that it wouldn't last long., and i suppose it did. really quite painful crushing feeling in the chest. pains down all my limbs, struggling to breath. unfortunately it took three attempts to stop my heart and get a diagnostic scan in which they had to triple the dose

December Update Hello everyone, just a quick update because it’s been a short while. The only treatment update to tell of is increasing the dose of my anti-seizure medication due to an emergence and increase of twitching all over my body which could be minor seizure activity. The only other change in symptoms is an increase in quantity and intensity of my headaches but nothing that’s particularly difficult to deal with, it’s more just the anxiety it can cause. Heart scan is on the 18th and I have to have a filling next week, and I’m really not a fan of the dentist. Anxiety and Tumours A 2003 Finnish study discusses the links between tumour locations and anxiety prevalence in patients. The results indicate that patients with tumours in the right hemisphere of the brain (e.g. Me) had significantly higher levels of anxiety than that of left sided tumour patients. The good news is patients with right hemisphere gliomas showed a general decrease in anxiety after surgical interve