Lisa started to notice vision problems in her left eye along with headaches in July of this year. The eye doctor said she was scheduled for October already for her routine exam and to just keep this date. Well, the vision and headaches got worse so Lisa was able to move the appointment up to August 27th and after not seeing anything in her eye that would cause this, Lisa set up another appointment for more tests on September 02. Once again nothing, so they sent her to a specialist September 16 that failed to notice anything in the eye that would cause the problems she was having so they ordered a MRI to be done on Lisa's head. On October 02 Lisa had her MRI, which I was not sure was going to be done because Lisa does not like confined spaces at all. They did manage to get the MRI done with the help of anxiety meds, but we did not get any results back that day. A few days later, the results did come back and they had discovered that Lisa has a menigioma, which is a non-cancerous brain tumor.
To say the least, this news was devastating for both Lisa and I. I just broke down and cried asking God "Why Lisa?' She is such a loving person, a great wife and a fantastic mom. I'm still waiting for a answer. God seems to be really testing our faith right now and times like this, it gets very hard to stay strong, but our family is strong with our faith and we plan on getting through this and one day I will have my answer on why Lisa.
Lisa shared this news with the neurosurgeon she has worked with for years at Children's Mercy Hospital, Dr. Christian Kaufman. Dr. Kaufman, who is a wonderful person, spoke with both of us and recommended we see the doctor he refers his children to when they get older, Dr. Roukoz Chamoun. We visited Dr. Chamoun on October 11 and he explained everything to us in detail and went over our options. He said Lisa has a large left clinoidal menigioma encasing the internal carotid artery and its branches causing compression of the optic nerve.
Surgery is scheduled November 30 at KU Medical Center downtown to try and remove as much of this tumor that he can releasing some of the tension she is getting around her eye and reliever her headaches. Unfortunately he cannot remove the entire tumor this way, and Lisa will have to follow up over a month later with daily radiation treatments that will last for a month. Hopefully this will remove the rest of the tumor. This is going to be a long, hard journey for Lisa and her family, friends. She is strong, full of faith, and we are going to get through this. At this time all we ask for are your thoughts and prayers. We have also set a up a meal plan through Meal Train, which is under "ways to help" on this site. This will benefit our family quite a bit and would like to thank you in advance for all your support. Please share this site with anyone you think would want to be updated on Lisa's Journey.
