My Story

This is my way of documenting what I’ve been going through this year. I am using this as a means to express some of my thoughts and also as a way to update friends and family.

Back in February of this year (2011), after coming back from Fresno for General Vang Pao’s funeral, I came down with a bad case of the stomach flu of all things that started on a Tuesday. It was bad, but the symptoms I felt were rather typical (body aches, headache, and of course diarrhea). However after the second day, my headaches went from run-of-the-mill to as if lightning bolts were going off in my head. I ended up first seeing my family physician and eventually went to the ER that Friday when my headaches didn’t dissipate even after my other stomach flu symptoms were gone.

My stay in the ER was about 4 hours long. About 1-2 hours in, with my IV drip and all, I felt much better. During this time, the PA (physician’s assistant) came to talk to me and to see if I still had wanted a CT scan. The PA felt that since I was feeling much better, that I probably didn’t need one. Thinking that I had already been there awhile, I figured, why not go ahead and have the scan ordered up, it couldn’t hurt right? I went ahead and got the scan. Come the 4th hour, the IV bag was about done and I’m thinking about what I’m going to have for dinner and was expecting to go home. That’s when the PA came by and delivered the bad news. She said that the CT scan showed a couple of dark spots in my brain and that I would need to get admitted and to have an MRI done. I was sort of in disbelief. The seriousness of it all didn’t really hit me until the ER nurses, who had pretty much been ignoring me for the most part (which was completely understandable as they were swamped that day and there were a lot more people that needed their attention than I did) started to really be attentive. I was moved from the chair I had been sitting in the ER hallway up until that point into a bed and it sunk in even more.

After my MRI, Dr. Tien T. Nguyen, the attending neurosurgeon came by and said that I have a 3cm sized lesion in the right medial temporal-parietal region of my brain that might be an astrocytoma. He also said that I had a smaller 1.5 cm sized lesion in the splenium of the corpus callosum, which he couldn’t really identify. He went through the options with me and recommended that a stereostatic biopsy be done on the lesion in the temporal-parietal. He also mentioned that he thought about doing a biopsy on the splenium lesion, but that two biopsies was too risky. I agreed to this and the procedure was scheduled in a few days for the following Tuesday.

The days in between were filled with a lot of bloodwork and observation and also with various doctors from infection disease and neurology trying to figure out what the splenium lesion was. A thought was that it might be caused by a rota-virus, but nothing was conclusive. The doctors felt that the best way to possibly determine the cause was to do a spinal tap. I couldn’t believe where I was. Just a few days ago all I could think about was meeting my deadlines for work and now I’m admitted in a hospital, scheduled for a brain biopsy, and now a spinal tap. The beginning of the week before I got the stomach flu felt like an eternity ago. Up to this point, I was okay, but the thought of the spinal tap really put me on edge and I realized that nothing would be the same again. However, a few hours before my scheduled spinal tap, I was told that it wasn’t going to be necessary for the moment and a wait and observe approach would be taken instead. I was relieved to say the least. For some reason, the thought of a needle being inserted into my spine was a much scarier proposition than one being inserted into my brain!

On that Tuesday evening, I had the biopsy performed. I believe it started at about 7:00 PM and I ended up waking in recovery around 10:30 PM or so. My last memory was staring up at the operating room lights fully aware and lucid and then waking up in recovery. I don’t remember anything else. The neurosurgeon told me that he had to make a few passes as the first pass didn’t acquire the needed tissue sample. After being discharged from the hospital, I met with my neurosurgeon about a week later for the follow-up. I do have to say though that Bridget and Warren, the two nurses who looked after me in recovery, were both excellent. Beyond excellent really. I owe them a lot for the care and attention they provided and I can’t really thank them enough.

So going back to my follow-up meeting with Dr. Nguyen, he removed my staples and told me that it wasn’t malignant. I asked him if it was an astrocytoma, and he said no and that he believes it’s a hamartoma. So instead of radiation therapy, he suggested just periodic MRI scans every two months to observe for any changes. Regarding the splenium lesion, he still believed it odd, but estimated that it might just be temporary inflamed brain tissue brought on by my stomach flu and that it should reduce or be gone by the time of the first follow-up MRI.