Cyberknife

Not the next generation of light sabers. The procedure Meagan will undergo at Swedish to irradiate part of her brain where the tumors were.

We got to really look at the brain MRIs pre and post surgery. We could see exactly where each tumor was and where the surgery was done and the area needing to be zapped.

We have the insurance preapproval underway. Hopefully next Tuesday for MRI/CT scans and mask fitting (the procedure is painless and uses a robotic arm to swivel around and hit the area from all sides and you need a mask on so you stay still and don't turn your head). Dr Vermuelen seems competent and confident. Meagan liked her a lot. Treatment will start maybe 3-7 days later after everyone approves the plan (neurosurgeon, physicist, radiologist). At this point the surgery got both tumors. They were close together. So it's a "spot weld " as Dr. Vermuelen puts it - mopping up the microcells of cancer the brain surgeon didn't get. Likely 3-5 treatments that take an hour each with set up. Exactly what the treatment is depends on the new scans which drives number of treatments, beam intensity, area covered. There is an outside chance of broader beam approach but they want it tight but still get sufficient margin. She's pretty confident the Cyberknife will do it. The after effects are short (which we need) so once the swelling goes down we can move on to the systemic treatment in the hospital with the two week Interleukin-2. That could be as little as two weeks after cyberknife treatment conclusion.

Meagan is quite nonplussed. Technology is amazing.