Thursday, October 04, 2007

Not so good news

Yesterday, we finally got the results of the biopsy of FIL's brain tumor. We had been under the impression that it was not malignant, because it hadn't grown much over the last 2 years of MRIs and Cat scans he's been getting. Well, it turns out we were wrong. He's got grade 2 astrocytoma, also called diffuse astrocytoma, which means it has tentacles that extend into the brain (and look remarkably like brain matter). So even though the surgery was a success, and the seizures are gone, FIL is not out of the woods. The whole tumor cannot be removed, so his only option at this point is chemotherapy.

As far as we can tell, he's in good spirits at this point, getting ready for the new treatments. We'll have to go visit him soon, while I can still handle the eight hour drive one way. So far I've been good with cars, but I don't want to assume that it will be as easy once the third trimester officially kicks in... SIL will be in town this weekend, so we will be getting more specific news straight from the source (she met with the oncologist). Apparently with the chemo treatment, they expect FIL to be free of seizures for the next 5-10 years (that's if everything goes well).

The really sad thing is that DH's brother's wife's Dad has brain cancer as well, and has been fighting it for the last few years. He's been doing pretty well, and has far outlived any of the predictions that had been made, but he's still alternating between chemo and surgeries. My two nieces and nephew have two grandfathers with brain cancer :( That's just no fun!

So that's the depressing news of the day. I've been trying to come up with some good news to end the blog on a sunnier note, but my head is still a little cloudy from a cold I caught earlier this week (I guess the fact that I'm getting over the cold is good news)...

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