post treatment (one month)
today is technically one month + two days post-treatment, and i have some excellent news to share. in a very unexpected development of events, my double vision has almost entirely gone away already.
you may recall reading from my previous updates that any improvement in my double vision post-treatment would be (a) not guaranteed, and (b) taking place over a longer time period, likely 3-6 months at minimum or up to a year or more, if any improvements do take place. all of the neuro-ophthalmologists, neurosurgeons, and radiation oncologists i spoke with said this. from my august 20, 2025 update:
as for symptom relief, there is no guarantee that treating my meningioma with GK will result in any improvements with my double vision. my RO is hopeful that i will experience some symptom relief over time since meningiomas typically grow very slowly, and it has only been a few months since i started experiencing double vision and presumably my meningioma started touching my 6th cranial nerve. seemingly, i have all the factors playing in my favor (e.g. age, health, length of time being symptomatic, etc.) but each human body is so unique in its own way, and we'll just have to see how it plays out.
over the past month, i remained hopeful that i would eventually see improvements to my vision because my 6th nerve palsy never seemed to have developed into a full palsy but merely a paresis (partial palsy), where my eye still had more or less full range of motion (e.g. i was able to move my eyeballs to the left and right). i also believed i had the best care team at ucsf and trusted them entirely, after having spoken with almost 10 different neurosurgeons and radiation oncologists from all over the U.S. and deciding that the multidisciplinary approach and state of the art technology offered at ucsf would provide me with the best chances of a successful treatment and recovery.
despite all of this, i never expected to see any improvements in such a short amount of time. the week after treatment, my double vision had noticeably worsened, which i was previously warned might be the case. this only lasted for about a week, however, and exactly three weeks post-treatment, i started to notice improvements in my double vision. i was able to hold single vision in almost all directions except while looking to my right, and there were moments when i could hold single vision even in a rightward gaze.
for the first time since may of this year, i started trail running again and wasn't seeing double when looking down at the ground or ahead of me. i started driving again, short distances at first and then longer distances on the highway and in traffic, and felt mostly safe and confident doing so. i started running my dog in agility class again without fear of crashing into an obstacle or tripping over myself.
fall is a beautiful time to be able to see clearly
over the next week and a half, my vision continued to improve, and today when i went in for my one month follow-up appointment with my neuro-ophthalmologist, she measured out my right gaze at only 1 prism (for reference, i was measuring out at 16-18 prisms in all directions right before i received treatment). i was expecting this appointment to be the one where i got a prescription for prism glasses or maybe some fresnel press-on prisms, but it appears i've skipped that stage entirely in my healing process.
at this point you might be wondering, what contributed to such fast healing? unfortunately that's a question no one will ever definitively have the answer to, but there could be a few possible factors:
- partial rather than full palsy of the 6th cranial nerve (in other words, the nerve was still at least partially alive at the time of treatment, which is more likely to be the case if treatment is performed within several months or less of symptoms arising)
- a light compression rather than full encapsulation of the 6th nerve by the meningioma
- WHO grade 1, non-calcified meningioma (unable to confirm without undergoing surgery and taking a tumor sample)
i'll also share some lifestyle factors here that i suspect may have played some role in my healing process, but it's merely a hunch and not scientifically shown (although any medical professionals reading this who are running studies or trials on meningioma patients are more than welcome to contact me for participation):
- sleep: i normally sleep 8 hours per night, but since treatment i've been sleeping even more than that (probably closer to 9-10 hours per night)
- exercise: i live an active lifestyle and remained somewhat active throughout the summer and even post-treatment, running up until the day before treatment started and running again regularly starting the sunday after treatment but keeping exercise levels mild so as not to create any additional unwanted stress or inflammation on my body
- diet: i tried to eat a relatively anti-inflammatory diet throughout the summer, including lots of veggies and berries, and have been on a 16:8 intermittent fasting schedule since early this year
- alcohol: i don't really drink alcohol and have maybe had a total of 1-2 drinks since symptoms started in may; also wasn't drinking much more than that prior to becoming symptomatic
- smoking: i don't smoke cigarettes and never have
- vascular health: i had all normal labs and good vascular health going into the summer (high vo2, low end of normal blood pressure, low resting hr)
- medication: i don't take any medication regularly and only took zofran (ant-nausea) for a few days during treatment
tldr; i'm very health conscious and have lived a very health lifestyle for the past many years but definitely tightened it up a bit since becoming symptomatic in may.
i feel extremely grateful to have seen the progress i've seen so far and remain hopeful that the final bit of double vision on my right side will continue to heal and fully go away in the upcoming months. i'm also grateful to have hardly experienced any side effects from radiation that doctors warned me about and that i've heard from other patients - just a bit of fatigue and nausea for a few days during treatment. i'm so convinced that all of the support, manifestations, prayers, and positive vibes in whatever shape or form you've expressed them have made a positive difference in my healing journey, so thank you.
i probably won't post another update here until my six month follow up mri in march, unless there are any drastic changes to report, but please continue to send your positivity my way as i truly believe in the power of positive energy, even from afar.
onward and upward