Neurosurgery -- A Plan

As you may already know, Tim came down with a bout of persistent hiccups three weeks ago, which have gotten progressively worse over time to include a pretty violent cough and nausea. He underwent tests, which had mixed results. His blood work is good, the CT of his chest and abdomen was clear, but unfortunately the MRI of his brain revealed a tumor in the region that controls diaphragm function.

We have been sorting through quite a bit of new information over the past several days, and now that we have met with a neurosurgeon (Dr. Nader Sanai) at Barrow Neurological Institute, we have a plan. Hopefully what I’ve written here will provide some clarity.

Dr. Sanai and the nurses were very personable, informative and took a lot of time with us to be sure we got all of our questions answered. Dr. Sanai is very experienced and said he has seen this kind of tumor (ependymoma/subependymoma) in this area of the brain causing coughing and “neuro hiccups” many times before. The tumor is “in a critical area,” but he also said this kind of surgery is pretty routine for him. Based upon the info he has thus far, he said the tumor is “slow growing, benign, resectable and curable.”

Dr. Sanai does not classify this as an emergency, but he realizes this is severely impacting Tim’s quality of life and said he’s able to take care of this as soon as next week. Getting on the surgery calendar is dependent upon scheduling a hi-resolution MRI. We hope to know more very soon.

This is a 4-6 hour procedure and typical length of hospital stay is 3-4 days. To our pleasant surprise, Tim would be cleared to fly immediately after being discharged! Both the doctor and the nurse said doing so is very common – they said they often have patients fly in from other parts of the world for neurosurgery who then fly right back home. So, as soon as he is cleared to fly, we’ll head to our home on Cape Cod for some total relaxation. Anticipated recovery time is a minimum of 6 weeks.

Tim and I are very comfortable with Dr. Sanai and we are very optimistic. We felt an easy rapport with him and are reassured by Dr. Sanai’s confidence and easygoing demeanor, (not to mention that he does about 350 brain surgeries every year.)

We have been so touched by everyone’s well-wishes and prayers. Knowing we are so supported and loved makes this much easier to bear!

Much love from both of us,

Tim and Aline