Vietnam Veteran: Brain tumor after prostate cancer

Welcome, @bowiered51. I moved your post to the Brain Tumor support group (https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/brain-tumor-support-group/).

Can you share more?
Do you know what type of brain tumor you have? Is it cancerous or benign? Is it prostate cancer that has spread to the brain, called prostate with brain metastatsis (which is rare)?

Hello my fellow Tumor Folks
I have been trying to live with Tumor waiting for surgery being done by VA since its related to my service, what has been found is that the tumor is wrapped around at least 3 nerves facial, hearing and speech and the surgery will take up to 5 hours my question is related to all so I’m asking for those who may have had the same issues and the surgery to let’s us know the outcome of the surgery that you may have had or if you had surgery or radiation how are you doing now and any complications?

I haven't experienced the exact situation. However, I've not only had 3 brain surgeries for tumor removals in my R frontal/ temporal region, including almost a whole lobectomy, but after a length of time with good recovery, I was able to go back to school and now work in NeuroDiagnostics at 2 hospitals. During the brain surgeries, many are done while the patient is awake and partially sedated, with inetroperative monitoring aka IOM so they can monitor how close they are to nerves, etc and also ask the patient questions and see if they can follow commands, so they can see how their speech is, ask questions to see if you can remember things, make sure you can squeeze your hands, etc.

Thank you for sharing. My brother just had brain surgery to remove a tumor and necrosis caused by radiation of that tumor. 1 week ago. Left side weakness getting stronger but his ability to figure things out is bad. Like takes his shirt off to change his pj bottoms? And anger issues. Did you have these problems at first. This is his 4th surgery. 1st 3, over 10 yrs, were on right side. This time through top of head, more center. He's in therapy till Dec22. He was in IT. His ability to organize was his life.
Have you had radiation? He's been married since his wife was 16, 45 yrs. They've always been super close. So this is hard on his wife. Just wondering did you have these bad effects before things start to get better? I've read about doctors at his point that are now doctors again. Thanks so much for sharing your story!

I have a frontal and wait and watch. Doctor suggests radiation. Sounds better to me than craniotomy. Very hard devious to make.

When you say the top of his brain, what area? If it's the frontal lobe, it controls intellectual activities like organization, behavior, emotions, and personality. I've had tonic-clonic frontal temporal lobe epilepsy since I was 10, with my 1st surgery at 11 years old from benign tumors that were in my R temporal lobe. I've experienced those types of things, as well as many of my patients. My mom actually put me in DCFS group homes when I was about 12 or 13 due to those things & said it was because she couldn't take care of me anymore. Then when I was 19, she put me in nursing homes saying the same thing. I've never had radiation, but after my last 2 surgeries in 2008, which included almost a whole lobectomy, I had emotional problems as well as being frusterated with the people in the nursing homes, but after about 8 months of recovery, I moved back out, became an advocate for people with disabilities, did motivational speaking, worked in homecare, then took Electroneurodiagnostics during covid and now work in 2 hospitals. It's very much a struggle, but not having support, like I didn't have, is the hard pat, which is why I began doing what I do. Each lobe of the brain controls different things, so the location of the abnormal activity will give the reason for a personality change, etc and proper treatment, therapy, meds, etc might take time to work properly. Our hospitals do intracranial surgeries to help with precise locations of activity and cause

Thanks for your response. You sound like a great person. My brother was head of IT for work. So not being able to figure out how to use a phone or TV remote or drive must be frustrating. His surgery was Dec 4th, so he has no patience. He's recovering physically pretty good, way underweight but eating good now. So I guess he thinks his brain should be healing just as fast. It's only been about 3 months since he quit being able to drive or use a phone. His temper is something we have never seen before. He's 65. He has always been the most patient person in the world. He has his wife, son and me for support. What kind of doctor or medical person helps him be patient and try to heal before retraining his brain to find his empathy again? Fingers crossed. Thanks for your info. You are a shining star ⭐. From St Cloud MN.

@taml You asked " What kind of doctor or medical person helps him be patient and try to heal before retraining his brain to find his empathy again". As you stated, these changes occurred due to your brother's surgery and perhaps the reason for the surgery. A doctoral-level neuropsychologist or psychologist (Ph.D. or Psy.D) would be the best professional to consult. It would be a good idea for your brother and his wife to ask his neurosurgeon for a referral.

You are so close to the Twin Cities that if there isn't someone in St. Cloud there will be an expert neuropsychologist or psychologist in Minneapolis or St. Paul.

It is hard to see one's own degrading of abilities. I was also had tech as part of my career. It's become harder and takes longer for me to remember how to do things I used to do easily.

I am using this change in ability to explore what I CAN do and to finally look into alternative work paths that I've always wanted to explore. I hope that your brother can find his "new normal".

I pray everyday that we all will recover without these side effects from these tumors. Wish there was an easier way and they would just shrink and disappear.