Fuck, that’s rough. Best of luck to all of you, Marley.
I’m sorry to hear this. I hope everything goes well, and any treatment your brother has to have is quick, efficient and painless, and the last treatment he’ll need! Good luck to him, and to you; you’re a good brother.
Ahhh, that sucks. I hate to hear that shit. I’m not religious, but I’ll be thinking good thoughts for him, Marley23.
Dammit. I was hoping kid brother could get a break in here somewhere. Please keep us informed and please know that we’re all rooting for little brother.
Wow, that’s awful. I was just wondering how he was doing the other day (another thread reminded me). Good thoughts and prayers headed out for all of you.
GT
Marley I’m so sorry he has to face this again. Your brother, you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers. He’s a lucky guy to have such a wonderful supportive family and big brother.
I remember the original thread. I’m so sorry to hear this news. I’ll keep you and your family in my thoughts.
I’m so sorry to read about this. I, too, remember the original thread. Best thoughts to you, your family, and your brother.
Wow, that really sucks. I hope it turns out to be easily treatable with zero complications. Please do keep us updated.
That’s a good summary of what this was like. It was a pretty awful phone call.
My mom told him the news today and he seems to be holding up just fine. For bonus fun, he skipped school for a trip to the urologist because he was having some groinocological soreness and might have a kidney stone developing. (He had one of those a few years back.) Mom theorizes he’s just in shock, but we’ll see. Our first conversation after he’d been given the news started like this:
“How’re you doing?”
“Eh, dying. Same as usual.”
So I think he’s doing okay, all things considered. It doesn’t look as serious as the last stuff, but we’ve learned not to trust much of anything when it comes to medical news. I called out of work for tomorrow and I’m with my family now. We’ve been watching football and playing videogames and that kind of thing. The tests are scheduled for tomorrow and we’re being advised that it’s very likely this is a new tumor, either a piece that broke off or regrew or that they missed. They’re not offering much in the way of alternatives. MRIs are forthcoming. I don’t really know how this stuff works, so I’ll be on hand to ask questions tomorrow. We had a perfectly nice night tonight and talked only a little bit about the business tomorrow. We’ll meet with Dr. Sen and get a grip on this and see what we need to do.
Thanks to everybody for the good wishes. Goes without saying I didn’t want to have to do this, but it’s nice to read the support. He’s a tough kid and I think he’s bonded more with my parents, not that he wasn’t shouting at mom tonight over who knows what,
Oh man, I am so sorry to hear this. I’m rootin’ for little bro, and I hope everything goes smoothly. I’ll keep him in my thoughts. You are a good big brother to him; that means a lot.
Nothing too surprising happened at the consultation today. He’ll need surgery to remove this mass as soon as it’s convenient, because we’re hoping for a minimal school disruption. It’s very unlikely that the mass could be anything except a chordoma, and it needs to come out regardless. Possibly it broke off from his original tumor during last year’s surgeries or some time before, and at the time it was too small to detect. It was also hidden in scar tissue, but has grown since then. It’s near a significant artery but we hope that won’t be an issue here. This is a relatively small tumor compared to what was removed last January and he probably won’t need radiation to treat it. If all goes according to plan he might be in the hospital for two or three days and that would be it.
That said, it’s disappointing to go through all this and my brother was obviously frustrated and upset. Dr. Sen was very encouraging and noted that the guy has gotten through all the insane things thrown his way so far, so this shouldn’t be any different.
After my parents went home, my girlfriend and I took him out for Thai food and then tons of chocolate before we put him on the train home. We have no word on when the surgery will be, other than soon, because Sen is booked solid for several months and will rearrange his schedule to get Tyler taken care of before that.
That sounds like very good news, considering. Fingers crossed and very best wishes!
Bumping this because my brother’s probably going to hit the roof today, or in the next few days, when my parents tell him the doctors want him to have radiation treatment after all.
We were told Tuesday that it probably wasn’t necessary, but at that point, the surgeon hadn’t had a chance to communicate in full with the radiologist, who was traveling. The radiologist wants to treat my brother’s neck before surgery, in case there are any other undetectable tumors in the area that could become a problem later. My parents told me a few days ago, but haven’t told him yet because they don’t know how much radiation might be called for. We might know later today.
He hated the radiation treatments and he hated Boston, so this could get ugly. The other thing that sucks is this could delay the surgery somewhat. We haven’t gotten a firm date because of the schedule machinations I mentioned earlier, but if radiation depresses your immune system as I understand it does, they’ll do the radiation for whatever number of days and weeks, and then wait a while for him to recover. So this also deals a blow to our hopes that this would disrupt school too much.
He can’t have the radiation and still go to school? His is a rocky road right now. I am sorry.
The treatments are in Boston, so he’d have to go back there and hang out in a hotel near the hospital again. Maybe they’ll only want to do it for three days or something and it won’t be a big deal, but if he gets pulled out of school for a couple of weeks, that’ll be yet another complication.
Stuff going to school: they can always give him books to read and exercises to do. His continued life is vastly more important.
Granted, but this isn’t going to kill him. He’s tough, and that’s why I’m thinking more about his spirits at this point.
Yeah, I know, I post this song often when people are going through rough times, but I think its uplifting:
Hope the very best for your little brother. May this moment now soon pass and let him come out stronger of this ordeal.
All the best for you and your family as well 
{{{Marley23 and little brother}}}