Ginger Dyson is beneficiary of new technology

On October 10, Magnolia resident Ginger Dyson became one of the first patients in the United States to undergo the Leksell Gamma Knife Icon treatment — or “knifeless surgery” — for a brain tumor. This was not her first experience in dealing with the benign brain tumor. She has done battle with it since it was discovered in 1988.

“I had brain surgery 27 years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia, the same place I just got back from,” she said. “When they found the tumor, I went to Oshner’s in New Orleans, the University of Arkansas, and called the Mayo Clinic. They all three said it was in an inoperable place. I wasn’t happy with that. It was wrapped around my optic nerve.”

Ginger and her husband Rodney did research into every possible avenue they could pursue to get the meningioma, a slow-growing tumor, treated. They ran into a lot of dead ends. One doctor in California finally suggested that she get in touch with Dr. Ladislau Steiner at the University of Virginia. Steiner had worked with Dr. Lars Leksell on the invention of Gamma Knife technology, and was head of the Gamma Knife Center at the University of Virginia Health Center in Charlottesville.

“I called Dr. Steiner and sent him my MRI,” Ginger said. “My tumor was too big for the Gamma Knife to work. He wanted me to come to Virginia, and we did. He had gotten a doctor from Yugoslavia. He said there were only two doctors in the world who could do the surgery where mine was located. He got Dr. Vinco Dolenc to do my surgery.”

Ginger had brain surgery at UVa in April of 1989. “I completely lost sight in my right eye because the tumor was wrapped around the optic nerve,” she said. “When I woke up from the surgery I was blind [in that eye], but that hasn’t been a problem. From the beginning of this, everything has fallen into place. God’s preparing me for something.” Her church at the time, Philadelphia United Methodist, and Rodney’s family raised funds to send the couple to Charlottesville.

Although most of the tumor was removed, part of it that was in the cavernous sinus cavity was left behind. “I went back in January of 1990 and had Gamma Knife. That was one treatment at the University of Virginia to get the residual tumor. What I compare it to is taking a grape and freeze-drying it into a raisin. That’s how I see it,” she said.

For the first Gamma Knife treatment, Ginger had to be fitted with a “halo” which required making incisions in her skull and driving screws from the halo slightly into her skull. “She said it felt like it was crushing her skull,” Rodney said. “I could hear bone crunching,” she said. “Seven years later, it had started growing again, in the same place they had done the Gamma Knife.”

Doctors at UVa in Charlottesville kept close watch on Ginger’s tests because she was part of an ongoing study. “Seventeen years later, they said it was to a point that something had to be done. I was having headaches. It was pressing on the only good optic nerve I had left,” she said. “They couldn’t do surgery on the good eye, for obvious reasons, but they found out that I needed something done in November of 2015.”

“That’s what really scared us,” Rodney said. “She could lose that eye.” The tumor was pressing on the only optic nerve Ginger had left.

The Gamma Knife Icon was brought to the UVa Health Center from Sweden. “It was supposed to be there in March [2016], but it didn’t make it until August. They made an appointment for me to be in Virginia on October 2. They just brought it in August. I told them I didn’t want to be their guinea pig,” she said, laughing, “but when I got there, I was the very first patient to use the Icon Gamma Knife in Virginia.”

Even though there are seven hospitals in the U.S. with the Leksell Gamma Knife Icon technology, the Dysons could not find out if it had been used anywhere before her procedure. A further search revealed that a patient from California was the first to successfully undergo the noninvasive procedure for a metastatic brain tumor in March of this year. The new Icon technology allows even more pinpoint precision to deliver radiation to brain tumors.

Scotty Jack, the Dysons’ fellow church member from Antioch West Baptist, made all their travel arrangements for their trip to Charlottesville. “Our church raised the money and sent us,” she said. “Scotty Jack volunteered to go with us. He took off from work for 12 days to go. He drove us from Richmond to Charlottesville. He did all the driving for us.” They left Magnolia on Oct. 2.

The best part about the new technology was that there was no need for a halo and screws — instead, the Gamma Knife Icon uses a type of mask that fits over the face. “I told her, ‘Ginger, this Icon is a mask, it’s not like before.’ This was an improvement,” Rodney said. The first order of business was an MRI and molding the Icon mask to Ginger’s face. Radiologists had to determine the dosage needed to shrink the tumor threatening her optic nerve.

“This was soft and warm,” she said, displaying the mask from her procedure. “They molded it to my face. It had to be on real, real tight.” The stabilizing mask was bolted to a table to keep her immobile during the five sets of five radiation treatments that followed. “It was double what I had 27 years ago but they said the amount of radiation was less than a dental x-ray.”

The Daily Progress, Charlottesville’s local newspaper, ran an article about Ginger’s surgery on Oct. 10. “As soon as the article came out, Dr. Sheehan got seven hits the next morning from newspapers and TV stations. Dr. Sheehan kinda took over when Dr. Steiner left,” Rodney said. Dr. Jason Sheehan is a neurosurgeon in the Gamma Knife Center at the UVa Health Center.

“They said that everything went well, that he [Sheehan] didn’t think I would ever have to be back,” Ginger said. “If it would give me seven more good years, I’m happy.” The nurse and doctors who were in on her procedure at UVa said that she “set the standard” and was extremely helpful in their learning the process for using the new technology.

On the Dysons’ property there are three crosses that are 15 feet tall. Ginger had seen similar ones when they were on the road to Virginia for the Gamma Knife procedure in 1990. She found out that a self-made millionaire wanted them placed in every state. “They’re called Crosses of Mercy,” she said. “Two men came from Alabama and put them up in our yard. I’ll tell you why I wanted them. I thought, when I first saw them, ‘Thank you, God.’ It was just an assurance that He was with me. Scotty Jack and James Garrett have kept them painted for us.”

“We couldn’t have done it without friends,” Rodney said. “Our church family has carried us through,” Ginger added.

Because Ginger spends so much of her time playing the piano for church and writing cards of encouragement to shut-ins and those suffering from illnesses, Rodney said the thought of personal hardship was not foremost in his mind. “People are attached to her for everything that she does for them,” he said. “They are waiting on cards from Ginger. Her cards mean so much to them. That’s one reason I’d hate for something to happen to her eye.”

“That’s how I praise God, playing the piano at church,” she said. “I can’t tell people to their face how I feel, but I can sit down with a card and put it down on paper. I love to do it. It’s my ministry.” A cabinet near her kitchen table is stacked with dozens of boxes of cards yet to be written.

Ginger will continue to have MRIs to monitor the tumor, which may take a year or two to shrink. “I think it’s already shrunk,” Rodney said, “because her headaches have eased up. I guess a lot of it is hoping and praying. We never know from day to day what tomorrow brings.” Besides her music and card ministry, one of Ginger’s missions now is to spread the word on the Leksell Gamma Knife Icon procedure.

“This is noninvasive. Anybody can do it. Lots of people have brain tumors. The reason I want the word out on this is that the Icon is for brain tumors that are in precarious places, that are inoperable, which mine was,” Ginger said. “If we hadn’t been persistent, we wouldn’t have gotten to where we are. All I know is God is using me for something, and I want to be sure that I’m doing what I’m supposed to. I’ve been blessed.”

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