Glioblastoma

As i am so blessed this week to celebrate another birthday with my mom i thought i should post her story to give encouragement. When she was first diagnosed i really held onto encouraging stories for hope. On 9/11/08 she had surgery on the right side of her brain to remove the tumor at the University of Pittsburgh hospital. They removed 95% of the tumor. We were told she would live 9-12 months. She had the gamma knife procedure and then she spent one week in rehab to recover use of her left side and was sent home and was able to walk with the use of cane. She improved every day! she then had radiation 5 x week for 6 weeks and also took temodor. she did develop a blood clot in her leg, but other then that she tolerated the radiation well just made her a little tired. After finishing the radiation the mri showed no sign of the tumor. the oncologist instructed her to take the temador only a couple times a month (this was the protocal). She saw her neurosurgeon for a follow up and he stongly advised her to begin chemo with avastin as he was quit sure the tumor would return with only the temador. We took his advice because he said this is the treatment plan he would follow if this was him mom even though it mean't switching oncologists and making a further drive. I had read that avastin is very aggressive, however,she has done great never sick her life has continued as normal!!! They have slowly decreased the doses and now 19 months later they are stopping the chemo because there has never even been a sign of that tumor since it was removed! So now they will just monitor her closely with mri's and we will continue to pray!! so don't be afraid of that aggressive avastin just go for it! its the best they have right now. hope this gives you the hope you need!