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Long trips in the car used to physically bother Connie Pugh.
After an hour or so behind the wheel, she felt dizzy and her head ached.
“I was driving a lot between our home in Toledo (Iowa) and Iowa City, where my husband had clinic appointments at the VA Medical Center,” she says. “I didn’t think too much about it until the episodes got worse and happened more often.”
A licensed practical nurse by trade, Pugh realized it was time to see her family physician, Dennis Mallory, DO. “Connie provides a great example of what people should do when symptoms appear, which is to see the doctor right away,” he says.
Mallory in turn recognized that something serious was going on and referred her to a UI Neurosciences team at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.
Two weeks later, on a Friday that Pugh will never forget, UI neurologist Lynne Geweke, MD, conducted a thorough examination. Physical tests and an MRI exam revealed the source of Pugh’s episodes: a walnut-sized tumor at the tip of her brainstem.
Whether benign or malignant—no one knew for sure at that point—the tumor would need to be removed because of its precarious location and the chance it could grow. Ignoring the tumor would make Pugh vulnerable to paralysis and possibly death.
The challenge of excising the tumor fell to Timothy Ryken, MD, an associate professor of neurosurgery who specializes in treating patients with brain tumors. In fact, Ryken and colleagues at the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at The University of Iowa are among the first to use a new surgical navigation system to guide them during surgery. MRI and CT scans, taken before surgery, are combined with real-time ultrasound video taken during surgery.
“Every layer of information we can put on top of the starting image or starting problem provides more and more detail and more and more honing in of the key issues,” Ryken explains. The technology allows surgeons to better identify the necessary brain structures during surgery, and to track a tumor if it shifts during a procedure.
In Pugh’s case, her surgery was scheduled for the following Monday. She returned home for a short weekend to “finalize some things” but didn’t let the worrisome situation overwhelm her.
“I wasn’t scared at all,” she says. “I told Dr. Ryken, ‘God’s going to help you get me through this.’ And I knew that if it didn’t turn out that way, there was a better place waiting for me up above.”
Early Monday evening, as Pugh’s husband, Leonard, and other family members waited anxiously, Ryken safely and successfully removed the tumor, which turned out to be non-malignant.
Since then, Pugh has fully recovered and resumed a normal life. Doctors are keeping watch in the unlikely event the tumor recurs.
Pugh is so appreciative of the care she received that she readily agreed to participate in a recent cancer-related news conference at UI Hospitals and Clinics (see related sidebar).
“I've been blessed with good health and a good outcome,” she notes, “but not everyone is so fortunate.”
For information about brain cancer therapy at UI Hospitals and Clinics:
- Call UI Health Access and ask for Kelly Hochstetler, RN, neuro-oncology coordinator for the Multidisciplinary Brain Tumor Treatment Group
- Call Hochstetler directly at 319-356-7606
- Send e-mail to kelly-hochstetler@uiowa.edu
For consultation or referral, physicians should call UI Consult.
--Michael Sondergard |
