Achmed’s Verdict… jury still in deliberation

In approximately 72 hours from now I am going to know what the deal is with this little buddy in my head.

Monday Afternoon I am meeting with General Batten to get what I hope is a confirmation of my diagnosis along with a tentative plan for the execution of Achmed. Lately the headaches and fatigue have been more frequent and worse and the burning sensation in my jaw has come close to bringing me to tears on a few occasions.

I had every intention of enjoying this summer and if that meant burning the candle at both ends to make sure I could fit everything in, that was fine with me. I still go to the gym 4 or 5 times a week, but high-intensity workouts are wearing me out now. Concentrating at work has become difficult simply because if I don’t have a headache at the moment, I am usually tired from having a headache not all that long ago.

Sleeping has become a bit of a challenge at times. I generally sleep on my side, and when I lie on my right it seems to aggravate Achmed, which causes me to lie on my left. The only problem with that is that it leaves me effectively deaf. My good ear is smothered in a pillow and my almost deaf ear is exposed to any noise in the room… for example, an alarm clock! I have done my best not to schedule 9:00 AM meetings lately.

My preference for treatment is still Gamma Knife Surgery and I haven’t been given any indication that I am not a candidate for it, so I am counting on it as my ‘cure’. The success rate of the Gamma Knife is extremely high and the success rate of General Batten with the Gamma Knife is 100%. This makes me both happy and anxious at the same time. In the back of my mind I keep thinking that he is due for a failed attempt! I am counting on being wrong here; the General says that his understanding is that this tumor is pretty hard to remove after it has been radiated. HIS UNDERSTANDING? In fairness to him, he also said that these little Achmeds are hard to "peel out anyway"... yet another reason to hope Achmed is not too big to be zapped.

Another thing that has been bothering me lately is the discovery that I may lose my license for six months. I had no idea this was even a possibility until a few days ago. I mean, I knew I was going to be putting the motorbike away early this fall and I knew I was not going to be driving for a few weeks after the radio-surgery, but I was pretty convinced that within 2 or 3 weeks of the nuclear blast to my grey matter, I was going to be living life as normally as I was before all this was discovered. It seems that a positive attitude may have partially clouded my judgement… well, looks like I may have had a summer of blissful ignorance in a few areas…lol.

I will be taking applications for chauffer duties over the next few weeks.

From Achmed and Me… Live Life!