It was 2012 when Carrie and Andrew learned that she had a lesion in her brain. She was blessed with a fantastic PCP at Duke, Cathy DelBueno who requested the MRI just to be sure the migraine pattern and aura change were nothing of concern. Carrie had her first MRI at Duke on a Friday.  On Monday she met with her PCP to review the MRI. Carrie's amazing PCP told her the MRI was abnormal and she already had an appointment set up for her with a neurosurgeon. Tuesday she met the amazing Dr. Grossi. He encouraged us to biopsy it but we waited. He was patient and undestanding. We were told that he believed the lesion to be a low grade glioma but a biopsy was necessary to confirm. He gave a follow up MRI for 3 months with the instructions to call back sooner if we had concerns. 3 months later we were again encouraged to do a biopsy, there was a change but minimal. This supported the idea of a low grade glioma, just not exactly what kind. We wanted to wait and sheduled for another MRI in with the option to call to schedule sooner. We called sooner and December 2012 the MRI showed more slow growth and we left that appointment with a biopsy scheduled for January 2013. The biopsy confirmed Dr. Grossi's thoughts, Carrie had a grade 2 primary astrocytoma in my dominant left temporal lobe with the craniotomy and resection schedule March 13, 2013.  

Here we are over 10 years past the cranitomy and resection. There have been a few bumps but not like other survivors have had to ride. It is because of Duke we are here and the tumor remains have not progressed. The amazing Dr. Desjardins  and her team is doing the best to keep it that way. We do know one day it has a high probability of becoming agressive but our current goal is to keep it a lazy chronic condition. We are forever grateful for what Duke has helped us do and process. They have a fantastic team to support their Patient's and their Families through all aspects of Life involved with brain tumors. Duke does indeed give people Hope.