The week from hell...

Lots of tears this week. I think that the hardest thing about the diagnosis from Monday is that we just were so taken by surprise.

It started on April 9th when we were admitted to the ER at Medical Center of Plano. They told us that dad had tumors on the right side of his brain that they thought were brain cancer. That weekend they ran NUMEROUS tests. Head CT, MRI with Dye, a contrast CT, etc. What we initially learned from all of that is that there were no other tumors anywhere else in my dad's body...they wanted to do a brain biopsy.

The neuro-surgeon, Jeffrey Cattorini, did the biopsy. He told us that he felt like on a scale of 1-10, it was a 7 that it was cancer. The pathologist in the surgery told him from two different samples, there were no cancer cells.

We rejoiced. He said that it may be viral encephalitis or a fungal something. No cancer cells = no cancer. You would think, right?? He did tell us that they were going to have to send it off to the Mayo clinic for further testing...they ended up sending it to UT Southwestern.

On April 26th, 2010, my dad had a routine visit to the neuro-surgeon to get his stitches out. We (steve and I) found out about the appointment on Friday, and I cleared my schedule to go..so did Steve...that's when the bomb was dropped. Dad has a glioblastoma. The brain cancer that defies all odds and can double in size in 10 days...

We've met the radiologist, the neuro-oncologist, and everyone in between. We just want a little time with my dad.