Eulalee Thompson
"HE TOLD me that there was
something on my brain and there was nothing more that they could do for me in Jamaica," Mrs. Matheson recalls of that gloomy day, early in 2003.
Before the diagnosis, the then 49-year-old probation officer, had been enduring pain, numbness and cramps in both hands for some time. She was
consulting a neurologist but her concern heightened when she received a cut on her finger but did not notice it until some time later. She discussed this with her
neurologist and he sent her to do an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) at the University Hospital of the West Indies. Before she could make the
MRI appointment, she began feeling a tightness in her neck and her family doctor thought she was coming down with a mild stroke. Another frightening
development was sudden, blurred vision on the very day that she was driving to the hospital for the MRI test.
DIAGNOSIS
Then the MRI and, a couple days later, the bombshell diagnosis the brain tumour.
The doctor's prognosis was so dismal and blunt because the malignant tumour in Mrs. Matheson's brain was sitting on a sensitive location, the pons, which contains numerous nerve tracts.
"Surgery would have made things worse, so I was sent home," she recalls.
She went home to nothing but further decline in her health she vomited up
everything she ate, she was becoming
dehydrated, losing weight. Eventually she could hardly walk, bathe herself and her entire left side was immobile. It was difficult for her two children her then 13-year-old son and nine year-old daughter and her husband to watch their mother and wife
deteriorate in this way. It was painful. Her husband could not stand it
anymore. They did some research and travelled to see a doctor in Atlanta, United States in April 2003. The doctor said that there was the option of open surgery but this carried only a 50/50 chance that Mrs. Matheson would lead a normal life.
"I wasn't comfortable with this. I had somehow regained some of the movement and I returned home and changed my diet to vegetable juices and fruits. I also went to a reflexologist," she said.
Then, she decided to visit another
neurologist at Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), who spent some time telling her and her husband of another possible treatment option stereotactic radiosurgery, a
non-invasive treatment with high doses of precision radiation beams to the tumour.
The possibility excited the couple. They
went home and did further research on the Internet. The KPH specialist made the
contacts for them with the CyberKnife Center of Miami, Florida, U.S.
"I had no idea where the money was
coming from it; it was US$25,000 and we had used up all our money already on the
illness and travelling to Atlanta but I trusted in God," she said.
God must have come through for them because they were able to amass the fee,
and in February 2004, about one year after the brain tumour diagnosis, the Mathesons travelled to Miami for the Cyberknife
treatment. Mrs. Matheson was actually the fifth patient on which the technology
was used and the first international
patient.
GOOD HEALTH
Two one-hour treatments over two days
with the Cyberknife technology destroyed the tumour to Mrs. Matheson's brain. Her left side "is still not all together" but she reports good health. The dark cloud has
drifted away and she is beginning to enjoy life again.
Dr. James Schwade, U.S. radiation
oncologist, at the CyberKnife Centre was in Jamaica recently to make a presentation to local medical doctors at the Hilton Kingston Hotel on the non-invasive radiosurgery. He told the doctors that the flexible robotic
arm uses image-guided cameras to deliver multiple beams of radiation to tumours and other abnormalities. Cyberknife locates the position of the tumour and delivers a high dose of radiation, with sub-millimetre
accuracy, that destroys the tumour and little else, since exposure to the healthy tissue
surrounding the tumour is minimised.
He explained that there is no incision
and anaesthesia and unlike other stereotactic radiosurgery, there is no invasive head frame, no restriction in patient movement
or breathing.
You can send your comments to eulalee.thompson@gleanerjm.com.
