Brain Tumor

[Saccopoo]

So, that shit is fun.

Started having some really cool and powerful deja-vu at work on Tuesday, then a strong ominous feeling set in and then started seeing small, flashing rainbow colored lights under the brim of my hat. Figured that it was either a premonition about an earthquake (like animals get) as Salt Lake City sits on a fault line, either that or I was hitting a major fatigue wall as I had been working long hours and had been hitting the gym pretty hard while not getting as much sleep as required in addition to cutting carbs from the diet. Anyway, I got a little freaked out, went to the bakery, grabbed a croissant and detoured it and everything kinda went back to normal.

Later on, started getting the deja-vu again (and it was super good shit - like I was seeing the future and shit - and it even had a soundtrack going along with it), and that's about all I can remember. Apparently I turned to the guy next to me, said something about tripping my balls off massively and told him I was going to puke, then my eyes rolled back into my head and I passed out and hit the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Came to with the EMT dude holding a ice pack to the back of my mellon on a huge goose egg. They were going to call an ambulance to take me to the ER and I told them it was nothing and I was fine. Fortunately the HR guy was standing there and convinced me to go to the ER. When I got there they did a CT scan to check for concussion probabilities.

Dude came back into the room with the radiologist and said "Um, bad news. There is a mass in the right side of your brain and we want to do an MRI for more detail."

"Well, shit."

So they did that and sure enough, there is a golf ball sized mass sitting there with a bunch of fluid around it. Nuerosurgeon (chief resident who looks like he's 17, comes in and says that they want to schedule surgery on Friday morning. Okies.

So, I'm sitting here in the Neurology wing of the University of Utah hospital (which is highly regarded) worrying about these guys going to the Utah/Michigan game tonight and coming back into surgery tomorrow hungover as shit.

Bonus is, I've had two really hot nurses in a row the past two nights. Tried to convince both to give me a leisure massage and body shampoo, but they didn't go for it though I had a girl from work come by last night to visit who wanted to give me a hummer.

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty fortunate that shit went down the way it did, because I most likely would have blown it off for ever until it became really bad. (Although, I am going to ask them if it's benign if they can just keep it in there because I was digging the deja-vu bordering on omnipotence.)

Also I hear that the chief neurosurgeon is totally old school and I think I saw him sharpening his hacksaw on a rusty pipe outside and telling the nurse that she should find his favorite spoon.

[jonzie04]

God damnit life is so short. I need to start enjoying it more... So much stuff I want to do and see.

[scho63]

You three guys Saccopoo, Lonewolf Ed, and BigMeatball Dave have shown an incredible amount of courage, strength and humor during what is an incredible difficult time in your lives.

That being said, keep fighting the good fight and if anything takes you out, it will be the horrific play of our Chiefs!

Good luck and continued prayers.

[Donger]

Keep up the fight, Sac. You and Ed and Dave are always in my thoughts.

No homo, but maybe for a second or two if it would help.

[Meatloaf]

Originally Posted by scho63

You three guys Saccopoo, Lonewolf Ed, and BigMeatball Dave have shown an incredible amount of courage, strength and humor during what is an incredible difficult time in your lives.

That being said, keep fighting the good fight and if anything takes you out, it will be the horrific play of our Chiefs!

Good luck and continued prayers.

Ditto this. You fellas remain on my daily prayer list.....and it's a damned powerful list too. Hmmmm, maybe I should add the Chie.....oh wait, never mind.....God doesn't care about the Chiefs. At. All.

Keep on fighting gentlemen. You are truly inspirational. Kudos.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by Donger

Keep up the fight, Sac. You and Ed and Dave are always in my thoughts.

No homo, but maybe for a second or two if it would help.

Pics or gtfo.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by BigMeatballDave

I would have pissed myself.

Yeah, when they first put the mask on, I didn't want them to take it off.

The best part about the radiation is it doesn't take long. Like 15 min.

I have radiation coming, I just don't know when yet.

Just got back from the initial treatment.

Had to sit in the waiting room with a couple of demented geezers just babbling about nothing.

If I end up like that, I'm throwing myself off a bridge.

Shit...I already told everyone that in ten years I was going to head up to Yellowstone with a bucket of gravy, chocolate and peanut butter and walk into the woods, pour it over my head and let the bears eat me.

I mean, you know how gross old people sex is? ****ing disgusting.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by BigMeatballDave

Yeah, that ****ing sucks. My Glioblastoma is stade 4 and we're pretty much in the same boat. It's about quality of life and prolonging it.

The longest survival I've found with this is 15 years, and that is rare. I'd be thrilled with that. I'll be 45 friday. The fact that I'm in my 40s and not 60s or older helps a lot.

Do you know if there is a cause to Neuronal? There is no known cause to Blastoma.

Have they said anything about any clinical trials?

They don't know what causes the glioneuronal. They hypothesize that it's stem cells aggravating the nerve cells in the brain which in turn sends the surrounding cells into a tailspin. It's a multicell tumor with two or more elements of malignancy. (Mine has three apparently.)

The problem with Neuronal is that it's so rare that most of the companies/research facilities running trials/experiments don't have it included and don't want it because it screws up the bell curve for their studies. They want baseline tumors for the continued results of their tests.

The hospital did send part of the meatwad up to a new lab in Boston that is going to do some gene sequencing on the tumor to help trace the cell divisions and other such shit. They were thrilled to get their hands on some Neuronal tumor from a healthy subject apparently. (It was the first thing that I signed off on post op.) I don't really know if it's going to help me, but more along the lines of providing more for future generations.

I was shocked at how fast the radiation treatment went today. Just minutes. Feel a little queasy, a little tingley on small areas of the scalp and a little tight on the neck muscles (which could have been me just clinching during it thinking that my head was going to explode like a ****ing potato in a microwave). But that's about it.

I have to say, the brain hole/meatwad extraction was the easiest part of this whole deal. Spinal tap sucked balls (after effects were brutal - you just don't expect them to be like that), the four hours in the MRI tube was grotesque, then the radiation, then the chemo pills, then the meatwad extraction (in order of most to least suckiness in this process so far).

[Lonewolf Ed]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

Just got back from the initial treatment.

Had to sit in the waiting room with a couple of demented geezers just babbling about nothing.

If I end up like that, I'm throwing myself off a bridge.

Shit...I already told everyone that in ten years I was going to head up to Yellowstone with a bucket of gravy, chocolate and peanut butter and walk into the woods, pour it over my head and let the bears eat me.

I mean, you know how gross old people sex is? ****ing disgusting.

You don't have to go to that much trouble in Yellowstone. Moose and bison are very common to encounter. You just have to get close to one before some idiot with his camera does. I've seen it before... a guy kept walking right up toward a bull moose with his camera and the moose stared at him, snorted, and raked a hoof on the ground. He kept walking closer. I had my camera out and was at a safe distance, waiting to see if the moose would charge him, but the moose didn't. That is not always the case.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Whenever I start to grouse too much, I try to remember you three.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by Sweet Daddy Williams

Whenever I start to grouse too much, I try to remember you three.

This is spot on. I have done the same a few times myself....

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by Sweet Daddy Williams

Whenever I start to grouse too much, I try to remember you three.

Just remember that I have sold my body and soul to the great but demanding gods of football in order that the Chiefs suck in 2015 and are able to get the first pick in the 2016 Draft and they pick a huge, cannon armed QB who leads them to the promised land.

I did this for you.

For all of you.

For all of us.

Go Chiefs!

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Looks like a young Marino.

I'm getting vaklempt...

[Kman34]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

Just remember that I have sold my body and soul to the great but demanding gods of football in order that the Chiefs suck in 2015 and are able to get the first pick in the 2016 Draft and they pick a huge, cannon armed QB who leads them to the promised land.

I did this for you.

For all of you.

For all of us.

Go Chiefs!

Thank you Mr.Poo

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

I was shocked at how fast the radiation treatment went today. Just minutes. Feel a little queasy, a little tingley on small areas of the scalp and a little tight on the neck muscles (which could have been me just clinching during it thinking that my head was going to explode like a ****ing potato in a microwave). But that's about it.

I handled radiation well. Only issues were Fatigue and hairloss.

How many treatments are they giving you? I had 30 last year. And Temodar was 250mg/ day for 42 days.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by BigMeatballDave

I handled radiation well. Only issues were Fatigue and hairloss.

How many treatments are they giving you? I had 30 last year. And Temodar was 250mg/ day for 42 days.

33 scheduled, but they are going to throw in one or two more for good measure because of the Thanksgiving break.

160 of Tem for the same amount of time, then it bumbs up to 200 (I think) for two additional weeks, or so I seem to remember the oncologist saying such things.

Truth be told, the nuking machine freaked me out a bit and I definitely know that something happened up there. The top right of my head is "warm" and just a bit puffy; have a slight moment of a headache every now and then and there's a dull tingle every once and a while in the warm spot.