Fred In My Head 2017

Friday Gabby and I went in to meet with ophthalmology, oncology, do blood work for endocrinology and have an MRI.  Her ophthalmology apointment went well and her vision has improved since after her surgery.  The doctor says she does not need glasses at this time and that if she did get a lense for her left eye it would need to be a progressive lense as her eye does not focus well close up but is fine further away.  He said that her optic nerves are no longer swollen and are looking much better.  Her left optic nerve is pale but seems to be working well.  A pale optic nerve is a sign of Optic nerve atrophy (ONA) which is degeneration of, or damage to, the optic nerve, a cluster of nerves which carry vision information from the eye to the brain. There are multiple causes of ONA but Gabby's was caused by her tumour. The effects of ONA have a broad range dependent on the adequacy of visual messages sent from the eyes to the brain, from little or no visual impairmen...

Gabby lead the Teddy bear walk yesterday here in town to help raise money for the Children's Hospitals of Alberta!  This includes the Stollery so it has special meaning for us!  Abby set a goal to walk a mile and was able to do two before she got too tired.

Just a quick update on Gabby.  She has recovered amazingly from her surgeries and is back to doing all her regular activities.  We are learning what are normal effects of having craniopharingioma and what are possible symptoms of complications.  She has been having headaches about once a week and we were worried that it may be a symptom of her tumour growing back but she had a CT scan done and everything looks the same as it did after the surgery so headaches may still be part of her "new normal" living with craniopharyngioma.   Gabby has also been gaining a kg per week which is worrisome and a sign of hypothalmic obesity.  We have seen a dietician and have drastically changed our diet to exclude added sugars, processed foods and carbs.  This seems to have slowed down the weight gain and we are hopeful that we may be able to get her weight gain to level off. Gabby has been doing a great job keeping track of her food intake and any pain or symptoms s...