Fourth opinion's a charm? Not quite.

My mom and Mark met with the radiology oncologist, Dr. Gresula, today (after waiting for two hours to see him, which makes them very angry!). You aren't going to believe me when I tell you this, and I'm exhausted at the idea of even having to write out this confusing mess, but Dr. Gresula agrees with Dr. Kendra that the frontal lobe tumor has gotten bigger and he recommends that Mark have brain surgery to remove it. He also recommends having the gamma knife procedure done on the new, center tumor following the brain surgery.

He agrees with the neurosurgeon and the neuro-oncologist who said that the frontal lobe tumor isn't new but he strongly disagrees with their assessment that it's nothing to worry about. While he acknowledges that the tumor was on old MRI scans from 2009, he believes the tumor has grown in size since then. It seems he was pretty adamant with my mom and Mark about his recommendation to have the frontal lobe tumor removed with brain surgery, the sooner the better. He doesn't think it's wise to wait until Mark is weak from other treatments to address the issue or wait for the brain tumor to start to bleed, as Melanoma brain tumors often do.

So now out of four doctor's assessments, two say Mark needs brain surgery, two say he doesn't. Two say the frontal lobe tumor is nothing to worry about, two say it is. What a mess! The optimistic attitude I reported yesterday was nowhere to be found today. The roller coaster of emotions continues. I've learned that it comes with the territory of cancer.

I can't imagine how my mom and Mark are feeling because I feel completely exhausted just hearing the results of each appointment, trying to make sure I'm understanding everything correctly (which I'm sure I never quite do) and then trying to write about it and make sense of all the information we've gained in the last few weeks so that I can report it to you. The trying to make sense of it all is the exhausting part because it doesn't make sense! It's so confusing!

My mom and Mark told Dr. Gresula they disagree and that they want to focus on the gamma knife on the new center tumor and then move on to focusing on the six tumors in his lungs, just as the neuro-oncologist recommended yesterday. If after all of that, the scans still show the frontal lobe tumor as a problem, then Mark will address it. Mark has been trusting his instincts for 5 1/2 years as he's battled this disease so I guess we have to hope that his instincts are once again correct by choosing not to have the brain surgery.

The radiology department will call Mark in the next two weeks, maybe only giving him a days notice, to set up the gamma knife procedure. I will let you know when he gets that call. In the meantime, my mom and Mark are camping at Mid Ohio this weekend and hopefully will be able to enjoy themselves. They were both looking forward to having a beer! Now I need one too!