Second Diagnosis

This morning we visited Doctor Andrew S. Davidson a neurosurgeon based in the Macquarie University Hospital.

Incidentally, this is the same neurosurgeon who removed a brain tumour from Alan's grandson Michael Connell last year.

Dr. Davidson explained that Alan is likely to have primary glioma tumour. They can't confirm the tumour type until they have studied a biopsy, but, the tumour has already damaged Alan's vision and needs to be removed.

The neurosurgeons will attempt to remove as much of the tumour mass as possible. They cannot remove the tumour completely as the cells at the end of the tumour are indistinguishable from normal brain cells.

Alan will be admitted to hospital this evening with his operation to start at 8:00am Tuesday morning. We understand the operation can take up to five hours. After this, Alan will be admitted to intensive care (normally a day, maybe two), then moved to the general ward. It is likely that Alan will be in hospital for up to a week.

I understand that intensive care visiting is for immediate family only. The general visiting hours on the wards are between 11am and 8pm, though some wards encourage patients to rest between 1pm and 2pm. If in doubt about visiting arrangements, please contact the hospital on 02 9812 3000.

Once Alan's scarring has healed, he will commence a combined treatment of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The chemotherapy in the form a tablet, the radiotherapy will involve 6 weeks of daily visits to the hospital for a fifteen minute dose!

Thats about all we know for now. Watch this space for daily posts on Alan's progress.