As you all know, Maria had her surgery followed by concomitant radio- and chemotherapy. We have just come out of that treatment phase and returned home to Australia (arriving last Thursday) to move into the next phase of treatment (i.e. 6mths chemotherapy commencing Monday). As mentioned in previous entries, the early treatment regime (right down to the chemo type and dosages) is international protocol.
Today we had Maria’s MRI, followed by a meeting with the neurosurgeon. We were looking at the initial MRI (taken before Maria’s operation in Israel), discussing it. During that conversation, today’s scan was uploaded. The neurosurgeon showed us the results and described what we could see. Basically, the tumour has come back quite aggressively where it was ‘debulked’. I am not about to go into full detail about our discussion, but the simple summary is that we have two choices: (a) another craniotomy, this time in an ‘awake’ state, entering through both sides of the skull to remove as much of the tumour as possible; or (b) leave it as is.
We spent time discussing the pros and cons of each. Should we proceed with surgery, providing it is a viable option, the neurosurgeon may also implant Gliadel wafers (chemotherapy) into the debulked area. Our neurosurgeon maintains a website that was originally prepared for students but has been developed over time to be user friendly to the public. There is a lot of information and pictures that are quite amazing to see.
Because of the nature of Maria’s disease, we expected that one day (maybe at the end of this year or further into the future) we would be having this conversation, but not so soon! We were both really taken by surprise.
I will be completely honest (as all other entries to date) and say that when we got home I told Maria I was angry with God because having faithfully endured quite a bit over the last three months and returning home with boxes everywhere to unpack, I was hoping for a little respite. I should qualify my statement that I also said that “as a child of the Father in a love relationship”, I felt I could go to Him and express this without attributing blame, but just being allowed to vent.
On the flip-side, in every situation there are always blessings. The first blessing in this whole situation was that I had not cancelled our MRI for today (was to be deferred, but the waiting time was far too long). The neuro-oncoloigst suggested we just go ahead and have it done to use as a “base line” marker.
The second blessing was that the neurosurgeon called the neuro-oncologist to discuss the matter and he happened to be in the building (he doesn’t work on Fridays) so he was able to come up a few minutes later and review the scan and independently concur with the neurosurgeon’s opinion.
The third blessing is that we feel so comfortable with both specialists and know that God has put them in our path for a purpose. This is a blessing that we experienced in Israel.
We had a meeting with Ben and Gabi this evening to tell them about the regrowth of tumour and the possibility of a further operation (we didn’t discuss the alternative). They were both quite emotional, as was I. They both asked such wise, analytical, challenging questions that demanded honest answers, but delivering those answers without burdening them. When we all prayed, the Holy Spirit spoke through them to the extent that, giving one example, Ben said in advance what he was going to pray for, yet came out with something completely different—yet profound—at the time of prayer.
Should we choose to proceed with surgery, then it would probably take place sometime in the next two weeks. We are yet to finalise our decision. Grateful prayer for the wisdom in making the correct choice.
