Doctors say Kennedy was awake during tumor removal

[Big Don]

Doctors say Kennedy was awake during tumor removal

Yahoo/AP
Excerpt:By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer Mon Jun 2, 7:29 PM ET

CHICAGO - Bravery in the face of cancer? Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has given it new meaning. Few things require as much courage as being wide awake and aware, lying perfectly still for hours, while surgeons methodically slice out bits of your brain.

Kennedy did just that, in an unusual operation Monday at Duke University Medical Center to treat his cancerous brain tumor.
His surgeon said the operation met its goal: removing as much of the tumor as possible to give the radiation and chemotherapy he'll face next a better chance to help.
((End Excerpt))
SIX HOURS. That is horrific! He had to be terrified the whole time. Just the thought of enduring that freaks me out.

 

[Grenadier]

Even though he was awake, I would have to think that he had been given a good dose of sedatives, so that he's in more of a dreamy state of mind.

 

[Big Don]

Even though he was awake, I would have to think that he had been given a good dose of sedatives, so that he's in more of a dreamy state of mind.

From the article:

To avoid cutting through vital areas controlling speech, doctors often return the patient to consciousness and stimulate tissue in the planned surgical path with a probe.
"We'll have them do language tests like hold up pictures, name objects, repeat words, hold a conversation," Ewend explained.

He had to be lucid for that... Holy Crap he had to be scared.

 

[shesulsa]

They have to do that with certain types of brain surgery or when they go into certain areas of the brain. He was most assuredly heavily sedated yet awake enough to give prescribed neurofeedback such as speech and verbal as well as minor physical tasks.

Scary indeed.

 

[arnisador]

I was put all the way under for surgery on my knee. I agree, this takes courage.

Often they regulate the degree of sedation...more while drilling, less while probing and cutting.

 

[tellner]

Scary as hell, indeed.

It's the sort of fight that requires a very different and deeper sort of courage than what we usually face. If someone attacks you, there will be a fight. Maybe you'll win. Maybe you'll lose. Maybe you'll die. But either way it's over pretty quickly, and you have at least some control over the outcome.

Here there's no enemy except your own body. Someone else is doing the work. If he screws up or if there just isn't anything he can do, you could be dead or worse. All you can do is sit there, watch and do what he says. If everything goes perfectly you get to look forward to terrible pain and sickness that will almost certainly just put the inevitable off a few months or years.

But unless we're "lucky" enough to drop dead of unexpected heart attacks or get hit by a train that's what's in store for most of us. The battles we will eventually die in will not be glorious and show the world how valiant and powerful we are. They will be the battle to maintain some dignity and grace. For as we struggle to steal one last sip of air for our suffocating tissues we go into the unknown all alone.

I wish him well and pray that all of us shall face the end with courage and in peace.

 

[theletch1]

Truly a scary proposition. Being awake for brain surgery would just be, well, weird. As I understand it you can't really feel anything but there are certainly sensations of pressure here and there (my uncle had a similar operation). To know that someone was doing brain surgery on me as I lay there awake would really mess with my mind (yes, pun intended). Hope this helps the chemo and radiation do it's job to enable his recovery.

 

[fireman00]

scary? yes! but in order to ensure that the doctor is not causing/ has caused any neurological issues during brain surgery, and even some back surgery, the patient is kept awake .... under sedation.

 

[Twin Fist]

it isnt BRAVE, it is the ONLY way they do this type of surgery.

this is like saying it is brave to get your junk shaved when they take out your appendix.

i am sure it was scary, but it isnt like they offered him another choice and picked the "awake" option

 

[mrhnau]

it isnt BRAVE, it is the ONLY way they do this type of surgery.

this is like saying it is brave to get your junk shaved when they take out your appendix.

i am sure it was scary, but it isnt like they offered him another choice and picked the "awake" option

How about a C-section? A decent amount of women get their abdomens sliced open. I don't know many that are totally out for that. Heck, birth in general!

Yes, I know its scary, since its your brain, but there are a decent number of "scary" procedures they do awake.

 

[Ceicei]

Or have eye surgery while still awake and aware of what's going on. That's what my husband had two weeks ago. Watching the surgery through observer's glass, it sure looks painful, but he says it doesn't hurt (because of sedation). He feels the pressure and smells the burning (laser).

I suppose, in a greater and more invasive magnitude, brain surgery while awake may be kind of like that...looks painful, but doesn't hurt, still able to feel and respond.

- Ceicei

 

[Kreth]

I guess after you kill a young woman, everything else is small potatoes...

 

[exile]

Scary as hell, indeed.

It's the sort of fight that requires a very different and deeper sort of courage than what we usually face. If someone attacks you, there will be a fight. Maybe you'll win. Maybe you'll lose. Maybe you'll die. But either way it's over pretty quickly, and you have at least some control over the outcome.

Here there's no enemy except your own body. Someone else is doing the work. If he screws up or if there just isn't anything he can do, you could be dead or worse. All you can do is sit there, watch and do what he says. If everything goes perfectly you get to look forward to terrible pain and sickness that will almost certainly just put the inevitable off a few months or years.

But unless we're "lucky" enough to drop dead of unexpected heart attacks or get hit by a train that's what's in store for most of us. The battles we will eventually die in will not be glorious and show the world how valiant and powerful we are. They will be the battle to maintain some dignity and grace. For as we struggle to steal one last sip of air for our suffocating tissues we go into the unknown all alone.

I wish him well and pray that all of us shall face the end with courage and in peace.

Very well put, Todd. It's not pretty and it doesn't bear thinking about much... but there it is, in all its non-glory. We may not go gentle into that good night, but it's a dead cert that we're going to go there pretty bloody worn out and beat-up...

...it is the ONLY way they do this type of surgery.
i am sure it was scary, but it isnt like they offered him another choice and picked the "awake" option

Yeah, with a tumor of the kind EK has, you have to count yourself among the lucky ones if surgery is an option in the first place—a lot of brain tumors of just this sort come back from the pathologist in effect labelled 'inoperable'—so it's a case of beggars not being able to be choosers. Seems weird that the really grim prognosis that Tellner described represents the good outcome with a glioma, but that's the way it is—about the only bright side is that these tumors are relatively rare (4.7/100,000/year).

 

[punisher73]

First, let me say that I wouldn't want to wish that on anyone and I hope he has a speedy recovery.

NOW, I'd like to make the joke that as a politician he is probably used to doing things without a brain.