Recollections: Gimpy Arms and Astrocytomas

IN WHICH OUR HEROINE EVENTUALLY WAKES FROM ANESTHESIA AND DISCOVERS THAT SHE HAS LOST THE USE OF HER LEFT ARM.


Evidently, my tumor was pressed up against my motor cortex. When a person has neuro-surgery for a tumor, a sucking mechanism is used to get the foreign body out. My little parasitic tumor sends out tendrils to wrap around and into other areas of the brain, infesting my pre-motor area. And since it was on the right side of my brain, it is the left side that is affected. Luckily, my brilliant surgeon knew not to suck the whole tumor out, else I would be paralyzed.  The good news is that I have since regained the use of my left arm due to a potent mix of physical therapy and prayers.  Though I will admit that typing is still tortuously slow.

To digress, my tumor has a name: anaplastic astrocytoma. It means that I have malignant star-shaped cancer cells. It also may have been affecting my personality and my creativity. But my memory, math skills (such as I had), and my vocabulary skills remained intact because those live on the left side of my skull. This is a tumor that originates in the brain and does not usually spread to other parts of the body but does occasionally come back in the brain more aggressively later. However, this is not my plan! I will see my chemo oncologist this week and the assumption is that I will start chemo immediately, by pill and at home. I will start radiation within the next few weeks as well. I will be using a specific thing called a tomo-therapy machine, which luckily Providence Hospital has. (Not even Seattle has one of these babies.) Thank you, Conoco-Philips.