definitely not

We're back from both therapy and a walk in the park. I'm beginning to think that Mom might be able to tackle a half mile of walking. She also spoke with a Korean friend during the ride home from the hospital today, and sounded pretty good.

This afternoon, just before we left for the hospital, Dad spoke with Dr. Leiphart, the neurosurgeon, and asked his opinion about whether surgery was recommended if we were seriously considering Avastin therapy for Mom. His reply was a predictable "no," so we've agreed to delay surgery until after we know that the Avastin has done some good-- assuming it actually does any good.

Dr. Leiphart (in case you're wondering how to pronounce his name, it's "lype-hart," not something else) also talked with Dad about Gamma knife therapy. In the doc's opinion, the procedure is not advisable for Mom because the benefits for GBM patients aren't obvious. He noted, however, that Fairfax Hospital does do the procedure, with the hospital calling it by a different name-- "linear accelerator." (Actually, Linac/Cyberknife isn't quite the same as Gamma knife therapy, though both techniques involve high doses of focused radiation.)

We're not deterred, though; we'll be talking with Dr. Fine's team about our options on Wednesday.


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