First blog post, time to decompress........

OK, been a roller coaster 3 weeks since I fitted 3 times in 45 minutes and was diagnosed extremely promptly with a brain tumour in my right frontal lobe. Using 20:20 hindsight all of the symptoms I'd encountered over perhaps a 3 1/2 month period all fitted into place, a waking headache on a couple of occasions, general feeling of malaise, some very subtle but now to me obvious symptoms of raised intra-cranial pressure, extremely poor memory, personality changes noted by those nearest & dearest to me (although this symptom went un-noticed by myself). Courtesy of the Walton Centre for Neurology & Neurosurgery I had a de-bulking of my tumour just over 2 weeks ago, and the histology showed a grade 2 oligodendroglioma - probably the best possible outcome for me as this should be slow growing and does not currently require any radio - or chemo- therapy, although further surgery & radio/chemo may well be required in the future. Will have a good craniotomy scar too, a friend gave me a qoute of "Scars are memroies that don't fade" which seems apt in the circumstances. The stresses on my family have been great, my wife particularly, while I feel reasonably OK with things, Still not returned to work yet (that is probably sometime off yet) but not got bored enough yet to be driving anyone round the bend. Talking of driving I've had my licence suspended for a year due to the seizures, which is going to have a major impact on my day-to-day life, but I have applied for my bus-pass concession (one bonus) and my prescription exemption (a second bonus). I guess my biggest concern is further seizures, as I was totally unaware that I had fitted on my day of diagnosis, so have no idea of what sort of "aura" or pre-symptoms I will or will not experience if I experience further seizures. Long term I'll just wait & see what happens, I've opted at the moment not to be reading too much about outcomes, median survival rates etc. That can happen in months to come when I've had the results of follow up MR scans in december. One thing that I have found out through this experience is that family and friends are the most important people to be surrounded by, and I've found the love & support of family, friends, work colleagues to be the most humbling experience ever, while encouraging me to concentrate on the important things of life. I hope I've become more tolerant and less snappy, although you'd need to ask my wife & son if I'm successful at that!