Anyone been diagnosed with a Grade II Astrocytoma and scared?

sue Siwek said:

tommy bear, be thankful
tommy bear, be thankful that you tumor is a grade 2, it is not cancer but must be removed. hence, no need for chemo. my husband has survived after having an inoperable grade 3 tumor for 10 yrs. concentrate on recovering from you surgery and rest, eat healthy and be positive. sounds like your doing well and in time probably will be your old self, but will appreciate your family more than ever. i believe you will meet your grandchildren, that is if you don't smoke, maintain a healthy weight, drink moderately and drive safe with your seat belt! those are probably more deadly. i don't mean to take your situation lightly but i will tell you that i had brain surgery 4 yrs ago for water on the brain and had a shunt put in. it was a month of recovery but since then i haven't stopped living every minute. be strong.

Mannie said:

I COMPLETELY understand how you feel Tommybear
I've been procrastinating on replying but I totally get what your saying. I'm not a grandma trying to tell you how it's been a wonderful experience taking care of my husband and that a grade 2 astrocytoma is not cancerous. Let me tell you a few things about myself and my tumor to start off. I was 25 when I was diagnosed with a grade 2 astrocytoma, I'm 28 now. I had surgery, 42 radiation treatments, and chemotherapy 21 out of 28 days for 13 months. So, grade 2 is cancerous and I was under the impression from my doc that it always is. I had chemo because my tumor is extremely rare, it has the same genetic make up as a GBM (glioblastoma) and that's what my original diagnosis was. After 2 1/2 years from my diagnosis I still get MRIs every 3 months and I still see my surgeon too because of the seriousness and rarity of my tumor. My tumor divides every 8 weeks even though it is a grade 2. That said, grade 2 tumors are serious and are nothing to scoff at.

You aren't negative at all. It would be crazy to be positive every second or every day. Only crazy people are positive like that. That's way too much pressure to put on someone who has recently been diagnosed with their own mortality. Trust me, I know, I've been there. I wanted to tell ppl who would tell me to be positive every 30 seconds where they could shove that "advice" because they really don't understand how annoying it is to be told that constantly.

I can also understand not wanting a relationship with someone. I have experienced all of those thoughts and feelings already myself. I still do, more now than before because I was too sick to think about it before. I recently starting dating a guy I've known for about 14 years and I worry about dying on him. Even more important than dying on him though, I hate even thinking about what my son's life would be like without his mother and I often wonder why God would give me this wonderful child just to have him grow up without a mom. I feel great and don't think about that most of the time but once in a while I will ponder that idea. I know all too well how you feel but I'm sure everyone thinks about this, whether they're willing to admit it or not. I'm just a straight shooter because it's important for other survivors to realize that they aren't alone in the "crazy" things they think. I think having cancer takes your mind into some dark places you'd rather not go but that's part of the healing process too and it takes time.

My tumor will never be completely removed because surgeons can't just cut out chunks of brain but I'm doing quite well.