What to do, or what not to do, that is ONE of the questions...

After waking up in the middle of the night with a gigantic headache and, what he seemed to think was a bug bite on his face causing tingling, Mom made the brilliant assessment that dad might be having a stroke. He was checked into the hospital in the early morning on Labor Day (he's still bummed he didn't get to smoke his brisket that day) and was told he had had a stroke. Further tests showed that the stroke was the result of a Cavernous Malformation, or Angioma, in the Pons area of his brain stem that had bled onto his brain causing swelling and resulting in the stroke. Since this diagnoses there has been an overwhelming amount of questions. What's next? How bad is it? What are my options? Will it bleed again? And if it does, how bad will it be?

Even though he has recovered quite well from the stroke, it didn't mean that ugly "tumor" was gone. So after many second (third, fourth) opinions, dad was referred to a Neurovascular Surgeon in Phoenix, AZ who specializes in cases like his and is the best of the best. With other doctors suggesting "keeping an eye on it" vs. surgery, the idea that any surgeon would operate on this was absurd. However, all of the MRI's MRA's and CT scans were put on a little DVD and shipped off to Dr. Spetzler in Phoenix.

At this point, dad was settling into the prospect that things were going to change one way or the other. He worked it out so that he can work from home in Texas now instead of Michigan. But all this time, the idea of a "ticking time bomb" in his head was weighing on him. Then, doctor Spetzler's office called and informed him that the Dr. does think dad is a candidate for surgery and would like to set up the consultation, MRI and surgery, all the next week. Yah, I know, whoa, slow down there. Still surprised by the news that he was even a candidate for surgery, dad scheduled just the consultation.

Here come the questions...What does surgery mean? What are the risks? How is it done? How many of these surgeries has this doctor done? Why am I candidate? Why wouldn't someone be one? What's the recovery period? Should I do this? Or should I wait to see what happens next?

After many sleepless nights and deliberations, another reputable neurovascular surgeon’s opinion, and the consultation with Dr. Spetzler in Phoenix, the surgery is scheduled for 9AM Friday, October 30, 2009.