Never thought I'd be blogging...

... especially about my own brain tumor. Even coming up with a title for this blog was daunting. But here we are. So for those who don't already know, here's how my diagnosis began:


June 2011: I started having episodes where I felt an overwhelming need to communicate, but there was no content to express. My family doctor referred me to a therapist for anxiety. I dismissed her advice knowing it wasn't anxiety, but hoped they'd just go away.

July 2011: Found out we were pregnant with our Sydney Greene, due in March 2012.

November 2011: The episodes increased in frequency from one a month to several a day. I didn't tell people about them because they were so hard to explain. And with Mom's breast cancer diagnosis in October, all of my attention was on her.

It was while we were in New York for Mom's lumpectomy that I had an episode in the hospital gift shop. My brother Richard asked me which balloons we should get for Mom, but I couldn't respond. The words just weren't there. Richard didn't notice anything unusual as these episodes were undetectable by others. However at dinner a few nights later, I told my mom and brother about what was going on. They encouraged me to see a neurologist ASAP.

December 5, 2011: Saw neurologist Dr. James Keily. He thought I was having seizures and scheduled an EEG and MRI (without contrast since I was prego). Told me I couldn't drive until I was 6 months "seizure-free" and prescribed an anti-seizure drug. I was devastated. No driving for six months?!? These were not seizures, I thought. I continued to drive and didn't fill the prescription. I was waiting to see what the EEG and MRI would tell us.

December 13, 2011: Had the EEG and MRI in the morning, expecting to return to work after the scans. Instead the radiologist sent me directly to Dr. Keily's office. The EEG was fine, but the MRI revealed a 4+ cm mass on my frontal left lobe. It wasn't clear what type of mass it was, but it appeared to be slow-growing. The location of the tumor explained my trouble with speech. But we'd have to wait to get more details in an MRI with contrast after the baby was born. Thankfully, the doctor didn't feel it was emergent to remove before the baby was born.

So for the next three months, we prayed like crazy that Sydney would be born healthy and without any effects from my medication, seizures, additional stress, etc.

March 19, 2012: Prayers answered! Sydney Greene Roberts was born healthy and without complications. God is so good!

April 18, 2012: Had MRI with contrast. Doctors at Peachtree Neurosurgery don't know for sure, but believe it is a low-grade glioma. They recommend surgery over a biopsy.

My family pours itself into helping me get surgery consults with three of the top neurosurgeons on the East Coast, while I avoid as much internet reading on my situation as I can. I'm a worrier by nature and this is scary, scary stuff. Praying is a much better use of my time than internet "dumpster diving" for glioma prognosis.

May 11, 2012: My first surgery consult is at Duke with Dr. Allan Friedman. He's done hundreds of glioma resections and gave me a lot of confidence that he'd do a superior job with my surgery. He mentioned some scary risks (temporary partial paralysis) but we left Duke with him at the top of the list.

May 15, 2012: My second surgery consult was at Emory with Dr. Jeffery Olson. He's also very capable and had many of the same responses to our questions as Friedman. Friedman has a slight edge at this point, however, just based on gut feeling.

We'll have our third (and hopefully final) consult in Baltimore on Tuesday May 22nd with Dr. Jon Weingart at Johns Hopkins. Our goal is to make a decision on the surgeon next week and schedule surgery as soon as possible (likely early to mid-June).

The recovery time for brain surgery like mine is approximately six weeks, so if our prayers are answered as we'd like for them to be, I'll be back at work in early August.

Thanks so much to my amazing family and friends for supporting me EVERY step of this journey! The prayers, cards, gifts, emails, calls, texts, and visits are appreciated beyond words. Please just forgive my delay in responses, thank you notes, etc as I'm easily overwhelmed with the new demands of motherhood.

I'll try to keep you all updated as long as I can, before handing the keyboard over to Tad for any post-op updates.

Love to you all,
Kim

P.S. Here's a recent pic of SGR.