Just got back from MD Anderson in Houston and got my second opinion.
Things now look a bit grimmer. A new CT scan at MDA showed the tumor has been more aggressive then we first thought. It has now completely surrounded the carotid Artery. The doctor at MDA said they do not want to remove the tumor in this state as it would require them to do a bypass of the Carotid. This means cutting off the blood flow to half my brain for up to 30 minutes. The list of complications associated with this approach is too long to list here but I did agree it is not what I want to do.
The good thing they did say was that the doctors I have working with me at U of M are as good (if not better) then the doctors available at MDA: something they rarely admit to.
They feel the best option at this time is to treat the tumor with chemo therapy and see if they can reduce its size to the point where it is not so involved with the Carotid and then do surgery to remove what�s left.

They feel that there is no way they will be able to get every little piece of this thing even under the best of circumstances which would mean the chemo reduces this thing by at least 50% and the surgery goes well. This brings up the need for additional radiation. MDA said U of M and MDA are so close in the best techniques for reradiating these areas that he best option would be for me to stick close to home and complete treatment at U of M.
I forwarded all of this to my doctors at U of M on Friday morning and got a call back in the afternoon. They said their tumor board would be reviewing my case on Monday and would want me to be available on Tuesday for both their answer to the new information and a treatment schedule (which I said I would absolutely be available for).
So I will find out early this week what U of M would like to do from here.
I asked the doctor at MDA what my long term survivability looked like at this point. Of course they hate to make such predictions and he did point out to me that if I�m one of the ones that make it then my chances are obviously 100%. He did then let me know that the mortality rate for patients at my stage is about 75% giving me a one in four chance at survival.
The fight is on!