Sadly, we found out yesterday that my wife’s father has a brain tumor.
He has been experiencing vision problems and headaches, and looking back, this sort of explains his out of the ordinary “loopiness.” After meeting with his regular eye doctor and then a retina specialist, both of whom could find nothing wrong with his eyes, he was referred to a neuro-opthamologist.
The tumor was evident after an MRI. The doctor told my wife, but her parents do not know about the tumor, yet. They will find out Monday. Although her father is 82, he has been in great health up to this point. This news will devastate both her mother and father.
Monday’s appointment will provide us with more information, but I just wanted to know if any of you Dopers have any experience with treatment, care, and the simple task of persevering after a brain tumor diagnosis.
My sympathy. Keep in mind that many lesions are treatable.
Having said that, there are just too many different types and causes for cancerous and other types of growths in the brain to provide much information about outcomes at this point.
More useful information could be provided once a more precise diagnosis is made.
My uncle had one with an undesirable outcome; however, his grandson had one that grew slowly over many years, and he came through the surgery unscathed. They had to leave a bit of it and they said it would continue to grow slowly, so he won’t have to concern himself with it for about 20 years. Best wishes to your family.
My mother had a benign tumor about 5 years ago. The first doctor they went to threw up his hands and said there was nothing to be done–just let it go. They said screw that and got a second opinion. She had gamma knife surgery (http://www.irsa.org/gamma_knife.html) and has been pretty much fine since then.
As QtM noted, there are many types of brain tumors, both benign and malignant, and different kinds of therapy, of which some newer ones are relatively non-invasive. A tumor (benign or malignant) may or may not be operable, which affects prognosis.
In the case of a malignant tumor, it would also make a difference if it was primary (native) to the brain, or a metastasis from a tumor elsewhere in the body.
I’m surprised to hear that your wife was told the diagnosis before her parents were, unless there’s some competency issue.
The doctor is fairly certain the tumor is an aggressive malignant growth located on the portion of the brain behind the nose. It has affected my father-in-law’s vision to the point of no sight, in about two weeks. She was very skeptical about the possibility of surgery because of it’s complicated location. The type of tumor was not known, at the time. If I had to guess based on his symptoms and the location of the tumor, I would guess it’s either a Grade IV Glioblastoma (GBM) or some type of optic nerve glioma. But that’s just a guess, and obviously we will find out for certain on Monday.
My wife has been taking him to his appointments and has been the point of contact because of his vision loss. The doctor told her about the finding yesterday in order to let her know to cancel the prescheduled investigatory biopsy- made moot by the MRI- that was to occur today. The doctor would have told him yesterday, but it was mutually decided by the doctor and my wife to let her parents have the weekend without the stress.
Monday will be hard for all of us. Thanks for all your well-wishes.
Tell and show each other how much love there is between you.
Take your FIL’s lead about how much he wants to talk. Be there if he wants to talk, respect him if he isn’t ready. Ditto for your MIL and wife. And you.
Give yourselves time to deal with this. Monday will be hard, and other days ahead will be hard, but there will be good days and moments as well.
If your FIL is dying, see if you can find out what is a good death for him. Does he want to see people or not? Have music and laughter or quiet contemplation? Does he want to stay at home as long as possible? Consult with your local hospice.
You probably know all this, but I wanted to say it just in case. Best wishes to you all.
My mom had a brain tumor successfully removed about 4 years ago. It’s the same case that they didn’t get it all so it may continue to grow slowly and may have to be dealt with again in the future. But she’s doing fine in the meantime.
My father discovered he had a chondrosarcoma–that’s a malignant cartilage tumor–inside the bone between his brain and sinus cavity last fall. It couldn’t be reached by surgery, but fortunately, this is a very slow-growing type of tumor and he had some time to explore his options.
The patient gets about 40 zaps over the course of 6 weeks, hitting the tumor from different angles to destroy all the cancerous cells. There are only a handul of places in the U.S. that offer this kind of therapy, but it has a very high success rate. He finished his therapy in May and except that he gets tired very quickly and easily these days, seems to be recovering remarkably well, much better than he would have under more conventional chemo- or radiation therapy. He will have a follow-up check next month to confirm that that tumor is completely destroyed.
He’s 72, by the way, and was in very good health before the tumor was found.
It was very scary and upsetting for our whole family when the tumor was first discovered, but at least now we have hope that he’ll be with us for some years to come and this won’t be the thing that kills him.
I had a brain tumor removed in 1996. It was caught very early, before it metastisized (sp?) to any extent. Even so, I had known it was there ten years before it gave me any symptoms and I let the docs poke my melon. I’ve had dental appointments more traumatic than the actual surgery. In the recovery room post-op, my girlfriend (at that time) had a hard time convincing me the surgery was over. I thought I had just closed and opened my eyes in pre-op. But, as QTM sez, all’s different with different situations. Sound like your FIL is much farther along. My thoughts with you.
I know it has been a few weeks, but I thought I’d give an update of sorts.
So far, my father-in-law has had two biopsies. The first did not yield usable results. Because of this, the doctors decided to perform a more extensive biopsy last Thursday. Results were supposed to be in today, but did not make it.
So, we still don’t know much, except that the doctors are 99% sure the tumor is malignant. They, of course, are waiting to give any information about treatment, etc., until they put a “name” to the tumor.
It was discovered, however, after an MRI and then another CT, that the tumor most likely started on the olfactory nerve, grew upwards, so much so that it sits on the junction of the optic nerves and has grown in to the skull and brain. The tumor is enormous. It looks to be at least the size of my fist (large hands), just behind the nose and eyes. All of the medical professionals who have seen the films have been very surprised.
Hopefully a consultation next Tuesday will shed more light.
Our grandson died just after his first birthday from brain cancer. Our faith comforted us. We also met other people who coped in different ways. But in every case, celebrating the life of the loved one by way of charity to others seemed to be what healed the most.