someone please help...Mom was diagnosed with Meningoima

mark247 · New User Joined: 24 Jan 2006 Posts: 2

hey guys,

Hello i am new to the forum, and would like to say that i am praying for everyone in this world that is going through what my mom and our family is going through.

I am only 22 years old and im really worried about my mom. Here is what happend.

About 6 days ago my mom fainted and had a seizure, she has never had one before. When she got to the ER, the doctor's took a CT scan of her head. My mom is pretty stuborn and she didnt want to stay in the hospital so she left. However i did make her get the medical records here is what the CT findings were.

FINDINGS: There is a rounded hyper dense mass originating from the left sphenoid wing measuring approximately 3.8 cm in greatest diameter. This has a broad dural base and is hyper dense. There is edema of the adjacent temporal and frontal lobe cerebral parenchyma. The findings are most compatible with a sphenoid wing meningioma. There is extensive vasogenic edema noted within the left frontal and temporal lobe white matter. There is 1.0-2.0 mm of midline shift in the frontal region. The ventricles are otherwise unremarkable. The basal cisterns unremarkable. There is no abnormal intra-axial or extra axial fluid collection or hemorrhage evident. The skull base and calvarium are otherwise negative.

My mom said that she has had maybe a couple of headaches before the diagnosis, she said they werent bad at all, and that they would go away after she message the side of her head. My mom also said that every once in a while she would feel a pressure in her head but that it would go away. She wouuld also feel a little dizzy, but never enough to fall over or not be able to continue with her day to day activities, my mom works everyday and also worksout 3 times a week for 2 hours for the last 2 years. She said that she has never felt headaches, dizzyness, presure or anything while she was working out. It seems as if her symptoms are minor????

Has anyone else been diagnoses with this?

From the research i have done, i read that most of the time any kind of fluid build up,edema, is mostly associated with a malignant type of tumor. Is this true? What are some signs or symptoms that i can watch for when i am around my mom?

My mom will be making an appointment at MD Anderson down in houston.

If anyone knows more information or where to obtain more info, i would be so thankful. I am really worried, and i do not want anything bad to happen to my mom.

God Bless.

hanan · New User Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 4

Mark,
I just read your post and I too just went thru something similiar. My Mom was diagnosed with a high grade Asdtrocytoma in Novemeber. THE BEST hospital for Cancer is Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC NY they are located at 1275 York ave. the doctor that operated on y Mom is Dr Phillip Gutin he is head of Neurosurgery and he is a lovely and brilliant man. I wish you and your family the best of luck and a healthy future.
PS. Hang in there my Mom just had her surgery on the 13th of February and was speaking right after the surgery. her tumor was 2.9 cm

brainman

Mark, I am glad to hear that your mother is going to a doctor soon. MD Anderson is one of the top 4 cancer centers in the USA if not the world.

I do not have a meningioma. But I do have brain cancer. Some brain cancer do give warning signs… it very much depends on the location of the cancer. However, I was like your mother… symptom free until one more cell divided into two and created just enough pressure on part of my brain to cause me to have seizures.

Talk to your mother’s oncologist about what to expect. The type, grade, size, and location are so important with any cancer… especially within the brain.

Wishing you and your mother well,
_________________
Jim
Site Administrator and long-term cancer survivor
1992 Astrocytoma grade 2, left motor strip
2005 Recurrence this time said to be an Oligodendroglioma grade 3, same location.
My Story Part 1: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=7350
My Story Part 2: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=8029
Blog http://jimhawkinsport.blogspot.com/

mark247 · New User Joined: 24 Jan 2006 Posts: 2

Brainman,

Thank you for your reply. My mom just got out of surgery. She had another seizure on Monday, and was rushed to the hospital. Do to insurance reasons we could not get her into MD Anderson so we had to take her to Ben Taub, however I have been in contact with MD Anderson's head Neurologist Dr. Raymond Sawaya for awhile prior to the op. he has been a very helpful. He said the Ben Taub Neurosurgeon team was outstanding and that she was in good hands, he also called over there and made sure everything was going well with my mom. She is out of ICU and doing pretty good, her speech and everything seemed to be perfect. We are waiting for follow up MRI to see if they got everything.

Before the 2nd seizure which was Monday, we were already in the process of finding a doctor and scheduling in a time, we had sent her MRI to MD Anderson and Dr. Sawaya and a few others took a look and said it was a Meningenoma. The Doctor prior to that also said the same thing; it was located on the left side right above the ear. It was about 3.3x3.5x3.8 I am glad the surgery part is over, and hope all is well in the long term. Have you been to MD? I too think they may be the best in the world, and also their staff. I would highly recommend anyone seeking help to try and schedule an appointment with Dr. Sawaya. Well I am going to go back to the hospital soon and see how everything went; I will keep you guys posted. Thanks for all the support, God Bless

Markus

brainman

Markus, I am glad that everything went well in surgery. Ben Taub does have a great staff! I have been to almost every hospital in Houston... not as a patient. I was a chaplain at Memorial SW and then at Hermann Hospitals in the late 80's. Especially when I was at Hermann, I had many opportunities to interact with staff from the other hospitals in the Medical Center. I have also had friends and patients who went to MD Anderson sense then. Most of the doctors who practice oncology in this area interned or did their residency at MD Anderson. So I have great respect for that institution.

A heads up about your mother's next MRI. The best that the doctors will be able to say is: "We cannot see anymore of the cancer." What this MRI will actually do is set the new baseline or benchmark for future MRIs... and there will be many. I can't predict what the schedule will be. However, it may be monthly at first, and then every two months, and so on until it finally becomes a yearly part of her checkup. Hopefully, future reports will say: “We cannot detect any areas of enhancement.”

I am not a doctor… just a fellow brain cancer patient.
_________________
Jim
Site Administrator and long-term cancer survivor
1992 Astrocytoma grade 2, left motor strip
2005 Recurrence this time said to be an Oligodendroglioma grade 3, same location.
My Story Part 1: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?p=7350
My Story Part 2: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=8029
Blog http://jimhawkinsport.blogspot.com/

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