Yes Arnold I do have a Toomer!! lol

Well, next Friday I will have surgery, performed by this man. If you think about it, it's kind of wierd to meet someone once and decide what he is telling you is in your best interests. But that is what happened. Tuesday we had an appointment with Dr. Spetzler and he stated my tumor has to come out. No ifs, ands or buts... he stated if it didn't I would lose my ability to speak soon. Now I know there are a few Home/Visiting teachers who might say that was poetic justice, after I had talked their ears off!! He told me I could get a second opinion, but I said I had prayed about it and knew he was the doctor for me. He said he was glad I'd gone to the "Boss". So the good news is, the tumor is not actually in my brain, it is in the fluid around my brain, is quite large and is pushing my brain around. Dr. Spetzler stated it is most likely benign and I have probably had it for a long time. So that is the update I promised... Before my surgery I just want to tell everyone I love them, and that means you! And to thank you all for your prayers and good wishes!! I'll see you on the flip side!! Love, Robin

Robert F. Spetzler, MD, FACS
Director, Barrow Neurological Institute
J. N. Harber Chair of Neurological Surgery
Chair, Division of Neurological Surgery
Director, Neurological Research

Dr. Robert Spetzler is a world-renowned neurosurgeon who specializes in cerebrovascular disease and skull base tumors. He has been involved in pioneering the technique of hypothermia and cardiac arrest for the treatment of difficult brain lesions. He has been honored many times by professional societies, including the American College of Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. In 1994 Dr. Spetzler was chosen to be the Honored Guest of Congress of Neurological Surgeons. At age 49 he was the youngest recipient of this prestigious honor.

Dr. Spetzler was born in Stierhoefstetten, Germany, and moved to the United States at the age of 11. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, and his MD from Northwestern Medical School, Chicago, Illinois. His postgraduate training was completed at Wesley Memorial Hospital–Northwestern in Chicago, Illinois. He completed a residency in neurosurgery at the University of California, San Francisco. He received board certification in September 1979 from the American Board of Neurological Surgery.

In 1983 Dr. Spetzler left his position as Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, to assume the Chair in the Division of Neurological Surgery at Barrow. He has been the Director of Barrow since 1986. He is also a Professor of Surgery, Section of Neurosurgery, at University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, Arizona.

Dr. Spetzler has published more than 300 articles and 180 book chapters in the neuroscience literature. He has co-edited a number of neurosurgical textbooks, including the Color Atlas of Microneurosurgery. He is on the review board of several neuroscience journals and is Editor-in-Chief of the Barrow Quarterly and Skull Base: An Interdisciplinary Approach.