Mid 2006 Spinning Options and Decisions

Months went by, more MRI’s, hearing tests and evaluations.  I looked at each MRI with the doctors.  I saw my “little body-addition”.  It was oval, looked white on the MRI screen.  It was growing, but slowly. I figured about 2 mm a year, not much.  It was at 12.  I asked my surgeons how big it could grow before injury to my brain stem.  He said at 20mm he would insist on immediate surgery.

At the end of 2006 the tumor had grown to 14mm and had developed an “arm”, a tiny 3mm extension aiming at the brain stem. The doctors were more concerned and suggested a surgery decision by spring. My yoga and visualization and prayers continued. 

Because the radiation surgery was not invasive, I opted for it, instead of regular surgery.  The gamma rays would "kill" the tumor, but it would remain in my head. There was risk and the after-symptoms might be troublesome, but not even close to those of radical brain surgery.

I scheduled Gamma Knife surgery for September 10, 2007 and met with the team of Radiologists and Physicists. I toured the room where one of the two gamma knife facilities in the country was located.  It looked like the inside of NASA with computers and screens everywhere.  The three dimensional MRI of my brain flashed on the monitors and the physicists mapped the exact shape of the tumor into the several ton machine that delivered the radiation.  Unlike malignant tumors, my benign tumor would get one massive dose of radiation instead of many small doses needed for cancer.

September 10, the day of the procedure I checked in at nine, was given relaxation medication and then fitted with a halo.  This was the most ominous part of the procedure.   The head neurosurgeon, Dr. Andrew Parsa, placed a metal and plastic device on my head and screwed it into my skull so my head would not move a millimeter. The contraption was heavy but not painful. Several times Dr. Penny Sneed, the radiologist specializing in Gamma Knife surgery, appeared and fitted me with a clear plastic helmet covered with holes the size of a pencil.

I waited my turn and was wheeled into the Gamma Knife room. (I think I was wheeled, I was drunk with the meds and things were fuzzy.  I was not asleep, just in and out of awareness.) 

The process was much like having an MRI.  The Radiologists placed the holy (small h) plastic helmet over the halo and screwed it in.  I laid on the flat bed and it hummed, rolling my body into a machine the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.  I didn't care.  I didn't care about anything and don't remember much other than clicks and hums.  The drugs worked. Gamma rays were shot into the tumor for over an hour and it was done. 

By late afternoon, still high from the meds, I was singing 50’s songs on my way back to Sonoma.