Kristy's Story...The Brain Tumor Grew Back

The following day I got a call from the doctor while I was at work and he said that the tumor has grown back.  We scheduled another appointment to meet with him right away. The only thing he could think of to do was another surgery. So April of 2010 was to be his second brain surgery. This time Dr. Coppens told us that he would have a high tech MRI machine in the surgery room to check his progress and the surgery would take about 14 hours, which it did.  The doctor came in and talked to me after the surgery and said again that he thinks he removed all of the tumor but it had changed to a grade 2 astrocytoma.

  

Michael had to stay in the hospital for a week before coming home.  This second surgery was much harder on him. The surgery made his left hand shake when he grips anything. His employer had to let him go because you can’t do construction work with a shaky hand.  And his employer could not have him back to work without a full medical release. He did ask for a full release so he could work but the doctors said no.

Two months later we had to go back for another MRI and an appointment with the surgeon to go over the MRI.  Dr. Coppens came in our room and said the tumor is back again and he is going to refer him to an oncologist in SLU hospital. We didn't know what to think or say all we could do was cry on the way home.  But we agreed to meet with the oncologist....to be continued tomorrow