to the hospital

We went from the Omaha airport to pick up my mother in law, and then straight to the doctors office. He reviewed the CT scan, from Egypt, which I carried home in a large brown envelope. Today it's all on computer discs. He sent us directly to the hospital and he contacted a surgeon. That began a two month stay in the hospital for Marie. That's a long time for anyone to stay in a hospital. They sent her for an MRI. I've lost count on how many she's had over the years, but that was her first brain MRI.

The surgeon explained to us, that although the tumor was large, it was not immanently life threatening. They would have time to get some special equipment sent in to use during the operation. He felt they could remove the tumor. He told us this trype of tumor is considered benign. It was called a central neurocytoma. It was located in a ventricle so it was blocking the flow of spinal fluid. That created the the tiptoe walk and the balance issues she experienced. He went on to explain that this type of tumor was usually treatable with recurrence being very rare. If you were going to have a brain tumor, then this was a good one to have.

The surgeon had explain to us that the word cancer is just a generic label, and when considering primary brain tumors, they were either malignant or benign. The malignant type was fast growing and could invade healthy tissue. The benign type was slower growing and would not invade the surrounding tissue. To me, it was a vague description. Even to this day I don't know if they consider her to have cancer or not.  He never made any promises, but I did come away feeling this was a serious situation but everything would be fine. He thought she would be in the hospital for a few days after the operation and then home to finish the recovery.  I just had in my head that recovery was two-to-four weeks and then on with life.

I was wrong.

It took a week for the equipment to arrive. Surgery was scheduled for Halloween day. During that time Marie had friends come to visit her in the hospital She told them she was having surgery of the abdomen, to remove cancer. Her friends would question me on what she was talking about. I believe the tumor was affecting her memory and her reality. I couldn't wait for them to get it out. She never had headaches or other discomforts. The balance was a safety issue and the memory was a concern.Otherwise, she appeared healthy. I never had any reason to believe that things wouldn't work out fine.

A confident surgeon.
A benign tumor.
No other health issues.