I have a 3 cm lesion on my C2 vertebra that may be a metastasis of my earlier sarcoma. My sarcoma doctor at MD Anderson said it was curable through surgery. The spine/neuro surgeon said it would be a complex surgery. He pretty well scared me. However, I am more afraid of uncontrolled sarcoma. He said he would plan a surgery in September. I could expect a 5-7 day in hospital recovery time.
The surgeon is head of the spine department and performs neurosurgery at MDA. I will be in good hands.
The MRI showed that the small lesion was bigger than first thought. It extends mostly on the left anterior side of the bone and into the soft tissue.
Since sarcoma spreads through the blood stream they want to take it as one piece. They may have to close off one of the arteries to the brain ( there are four). They think they would come in from the right side and cut the bone and tissue as one piece. They don't replace vertebrae. they would use screws and plates to fuse the C1 to the C3 or C4. Since the C2 is like a washer between the C1 and C3 that allows side to side movement, I would have restricted movement.
The MRI showed that the small lesion was bigger than first thought. It extends mostly on the left anterior side of the bone and into the soft tissue.
Since sarcoma spreads through the blood stream they want to take it as one piece. They may have to close off one of the arteries to the brain ( there are four). They think they would come in from the right side and cut the bone and tissue as one piece. They don't replace vertebrae. they would use screws and plates to fuse the C1 to the C3 or C4. Since the C2 is like a washer between the C1 and C3 that allows side to side movement, I would have restricted movement.
I commented to them that their description seemed to eliminate day surgery :) They said that for them it would be all day.
I guess I am tough enough to do this, I just am tired of waiting.
Oh, it's a long, long while from May to December....
One hasn't got time for the waiting game
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