pre 2001: disabling headaches on a wweekly basis. Spring 2001: extreme headaches increasing in frequency, ophthalmologist checks me out, sends me to MRI. MRI done june 01: 'we found something, but we don't know what it is'. dx 2001 thru sterotactic biopsy: Astrocytoma grad II, size 2 x 2 cm. 'wait and see' therapy approach (textbook example). MRIs evry six months until summer 2003 (tumor now 6 cm x 6 cm). 1st and 2nd debulking ops sept 2003. Followed by 1 year of hell on earth(extreme depression).
MRI's on semi-annually basis, then yearly. Summer 2007, tumor is up to tennis ball size, neurological deficits start piling up, time for another OP. OP september 2007, Tissue biopsy result: multiple samples indicate progression to anaplastic astrocytoma.
Post OP ring finger and pinkie on left hand useless/painful, hydrocephalus(?) at time of disharge (large fluid bubble on forehead that wobbles so wonderfully when I shake my head). January '08 control MRI: inconclusive result (cannot differentiate between left over tumor mass, scar tissue, and edema- please come back in May). Since one week, auras(?) but no epilepsy. I'm hoping that the cause is the extensive scar tissue. Note: not depressive after this last op, started working full time
2 months after discharge from hospital.

so that's my story. to be continued.

hard time for me

Hi I'm Katie. I was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in august 2006. July I went to the emergency room complaining of dizziness, fatigue, tingling on the left side of my face. They referred me to a neurologist and then came the bad news. I had brain cancer. It was by far the worst day of my life. Ive never felt so many emotions all at once. I was only 18 at the time. I remember sitting on my sisters couch just wanted to die because I was so scared. My doctors never gave me a time frame, they always said everyone is different and responds differently to treatment. I was first put on 3 different kinds of chemo because they had to shrink the tumor before they could use radiation. I forget what the treatment was called but the chemo was lomustine, vincristine, and procarbazine. Thats a very yucky dose of poison. The first day I threw up all day long. After adjusting the nausea meds I seemed to be doing ok. My mom called the special wish foundation for me and they let me go on a shopping spree! That was great it takes your mind off things and it helped me alot. After two 6 week cycles of that the tumor was smaller and it was time for radiation and another kind of chemo called temodar. The first few weeks of radiation were fine I didn't notice any changes but towards the end I was really tired, lost interest in pretty much everything and just wanted to sleep. I did 35 radiation treatments all together. Its been over a year and i'm now cancer free. I feel like im on borrowed time. Its hard to think about the future but I try and stay positive.

Hi, My name is Tina, I am Christina's mom. Christina is 8 years old and in March after three episodes of deja vu in two hours, I called the pediatrician and he told me to find a good neurologist that same evening. So, I did and after an EEG and an MRI they found a tumor about 1 cm in diameter on her right temporal lobe. She hasn't had any seizures and the neurologist wants her to take tegretol to prevent the first seizure. I DO NOT want my child taking this med because it has way too many side-effects. I am looking into naturopathy. Please give me some input if you can. I really appreciate any info you can provide me with. Christina is now on a Candida diet because her and her sister Eliana age 7, both have vaginal yeast infections. I think this might have something to do with the benign brain tumor Christina has possibly DNET the docs say. I have a gut feeling that Christina can be cured naturally. What do you think? Tina

Hi Natural Queen,

Are you still looking for stories about cancer?

hi,
my dad has had brain cancer for two years and we're trying to figure out different ways to treat it. could you help us?