As you all know by the last post Michael had an MRI that revealed a new enhancement. The enhancement is in the pons area of his brain, a critical area that controls your coordination and communication between your brain and spinal cord. The "enhancement" is still not diagnosed. We have Duke University saying it is a new cancerous tumor and Washington University saying they believe it to be inflammation. If it is inflammation it could be caused by a few things including Michael has had a stroke, the radiation fall-off, or maybe just because he has a brain tumor.
Michael had the numbing of his face which prompted the MRI. Since the MRI he has lost all coordination and can not walk by himself without falling. He lost the use of his arms and could not feed himself. He has a hard time swallowing food or drink. He slurred his speech and was very hard to understand. He lost his vision in his left eye and wears a patch over it to help with his sight coordination. All the symptoms he has are symptoms of a problem in the pons area of the brain.
So we have Michael struggling to gain his normal body functions back and two of the top medical universities in the country with totally different opinions on what the "enhancement" is and how to treat it.
First Duke, as stated they believe it to be another tumor and want to get a biopsy of it. With a biopsy, if it is a tumor, they could possibly have a vaccine to treat it. The vaccine availability would depend on the tumors cancer grade.
Washington U wants to treat for inflammation. They would put him on anti-inflammatory pills and see if Michael has any improvement. If there is no improvement then Michael could go on to Duke for the biopsy.
We went with the Washington U suggestion and Michael started the anti-inflammatory pills last Friday night. After three days he is starting to show some improvements. His speech has improved somewhat and he was able to feed himself today. He will stay on the pills all week and see his doctor again Friday for an evaluation. We will let you know the outcome.
Michael had the numbing of his face which prompted the MRI. Since the MRI he has lost all coordination and can not walk by himself without falling. He lost the use of his arms and could not feed himself. He has a hard time swallowing food or drink. He slurred his speech and was very hard to understand. He lost his vision in his left eye and wears a patch over it to help with his sight coordination. All the symptoms he has are symptoms of a problem in the pons area of the brain.
So we have Michael struggling to gain his normal body functions back and two of the top medical universities in the country with totally different opinions on what the "enhancement" is and how to treat it.
First Duke, as stated they believe it to be another tumor and want to get a biopsy of it. With a biopsy, if it is a tumor, they could possibly have a vaccine to treat it. The vaccine availability would depend on the tumors cancer grade.
Washington U wants to treat for inflammation. They would put him on anti-inflammatory pills and see if Michael has any improvement. If there is no improvement then Michael could go on to Duke for the biopsy.
We went with the Washington U suggestion and Michael started the anti-inflammatory pills last Friday night. After three days he is starting to show some improvements. His speech has improved somewhat and he was able to feed himself today. He will stay on the pills all week and see his doctor again Friday for an evaluation. We will let you know the outcome.
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