Cyber Knife is the treatment we have chosen. Proton Therapy would take six weeks of treatment, five days a week, two hours away, and would kill my pituitary. Cyber Knife is five treatments, fifteen minutes away, and probably will kill the pituitary. This was an easy choice for us.
I will begin in a week or so. They will first take an MRI and Cat Scan, then overlay them to map out the tumor. I will lay on the contraption above. They will give my hundreds of beams of radiation targeting the tumor. Each individual beam can do no harm but where they all meet is where they are effective in controlling the tumor. It won't even shrink the tumor, just hopefully keep it from growing for many years.
There is an 80% success rate for ten years. It is close to my optic nerve and hugging my pituitary so I am asking for prayers to protect both. They are going to give lower doses of radiation at the top of the tumor to protect the optic nerve but hopefully stop the tumor.
My endocrinologist will take my blood to get a baseline of all my hormones and watch my levels after treatment. An opthamologist will give me an eye exam so she can watch how treatment will affect my vision.
So there you have it. Your prayers are very much appreciated. It is amazing what medicine can do today. God is a God of miracles so I am asking Him for a hedge of protection around my optic nerve and pituitary. He can do abundantly more than we can imagine!
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away,
our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us
an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
as we look not to the things that are seen
but to the things that are unseen.
For the things that are seen are transient,
but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
