I haven't written here in three months now, it has been busy, first with my mother visiting here in Durban, and then with us spending a month in Europe.
When we came back home to South Africa we had an ultrasound scan of Casper, and he is doing very well, very strong and kicking a lot :)
But Helen mentioned to our gyneacologist that she experienced some blurred vision and that she had some loss of strength in her left hand. He referred her to a neurologist who sent her for an MRI.
This MRI showed that the brain tumour that Helen had surgery and treatment for seven years ago, has now come back and she has two tumours in the lower back of her brain. They are fairly sure that it is the same type of tumour that she had previously, it is a relatively rare, malign type called desmoplastic medulloblastoma.
This scan (which can be seen here http://scans.untangledweb.co.za/) was on the 7th of May, and since then we have been speaking to our doctors about how to proceed. If Helen hadn't been pregnant they would have operated her they day after the MRI, and then given her radiation and chemo-therapy.
But all these things have risks for the baby, radiation is out of the question, chemo-therapy can create many problems, and surgery means a high risk of early labor (since she would have to lie on her stomach when they go into the back of her head), and since the baby is only 25 weeks gone now it would be very risky to have him born now.
If possible we would like to wait and do nothing, and have the baby delivered maybe in the 28-30th week, and then let them treat Helen aggressively.
But Helen is getting more and more symptoms; tiredness, dizzyness, vomiting, etc, so we can probably not wait that long. She is taking steroids that reduce the swelling around the tumours and they help somewhat. We will have another big conference with our doctors tomorrow, and there will probably be another MRI-scan later this week, and based on that we will decide what to do next, but it looks now like it would be chemo-therapy.
Before we had spoken to the doctors I was very shaken when I suddenly realised how much was at risk here; my wife, baby and all the plans we have made for our lives for the coming years.
But the doctors are optimistic and seem to think that it is very possible to find a way out of this that saves both Helen and the baby. So until the facts tell us otherwise, that is what I believe too.
1 comment:
Älskade Dan,
I will write this in swedish since my english is not developed enough.
Alla mina tankar och förhoppningar går till dig, Helen och lilla Casper. Jag kan bara försöka föreställa mig vilka helvetes kval du och Helen lider nu, och hoppas innerligt att det ljusnar. Min spontana tanke är att ni kan ju inte välja, du kan inte välja vad man ska göra nu, det måste en professionell yrkesman göra. Allt annat är fullständigt orimligt, ingen förälder vill utsätta sitt barn för någon fara, och ingen äkta man vill utsätta sin fru för fara. Om man som jag inte är religiös så kan man inte annat än lita på vetenskapen. Och hoppas.
Jag finns där om du behöver någon, precis som alla dina andra vänner.
/Chrille
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