Facing the Challenge

Robyn's still dizzy, unsteady and feeling punk. She can't sit for long. She can walk to the bathroom with assistance. She'll be seeing a physical therapist today. The good news is that the surgery to remove the big tumor in her brain was successful (thank you Dr. Olsen). The next step is to address the other smaller tumors that are very close to her spinal cord, as well as the tumors in her liver. The doctors plan to attack the brain with whole-brain-radiation first, then use "gamma-knife" radiation to target the tumors near her spinal cord. The response to the whole-brain-radiation will determine how viable the gamma knife radiation can be since the tumors near the spinal cord are in such a "delicate" place. Hopefully, the whole-brain radiation will shrink them away from the spinal cord for a safer margin. As to the liver tumors, they will be performing an angiogram soon, to determine if they can administer thera-sphere radiation, or spot chemo directly to the most critical liver tumors or their feeder arteries. There are still a lot of big issues to deal with, but the doctors (Olsen, D'Ericco, Stender, Huben, Decker, Chen, Savin, Larusso, and others) have all been working together to provide the best options to keep slowing down the relentless progression of this disease.