Lloyd's unwelcome return

If you are one of those people who was a bit worried about me today, thank you, and your fears were not misplaced.  Today's MRI showed that the tumor in my brain is growing again!  It measures a bit larger than it was at my February MRI, and the adjacent swelling is increased.  Noooo!  No part of me considered this a possible outcome of today's scan.  Grrrr! 

On the plus side, I learned that my headaches are real, and that I've been stepping down my steroids too quickly in the context of the tumor growing.  I get to increase my steroid dose slightly (Dr. O said to go up to 2 mgs per day--I've been at 1 mg every other day).  This is a big-picture bummer because I was looking forward to being done with the steroids, but this is an immediate relief because I've been feeling rather crummy (headaches, fatigue) between steroid doses.  Needless to say I already popped my 'roid today, even though I normally don't take it until dinner, because I haven't had any since Saturday evening. 

So, what do we do about Lloyd?  Right now I'm waiting for the big University hospital down the road to give me a call to schedule an appointment with a neurologist.  Dr. Neurosurgeon will evaluate the situation and tell me if the tumor can be surgically removed or not.  That is the only route that I'm aware of at this time, although further routes will likely become available as I get more information from Dr. Neurosurgeon. 

DRAT!  On so many levels.