MORE MRI'S, MY NEUROLOGIST, & GOOD NEWS

This past Tuesday, I had my 2nd set of yearly MRI's. I took my beloved Valium before going in and was more grateful than ever that I had done so. The MRI itself wasn't horrible but one aspect of it was. When I was all situated on the table, the tech put a kind of brace over my face and head. This is something that has happened before and wouldn't ordinarily be a big deal. But this brace had a lower bar that pressed down on my breastplate, making it hard to take in anything other than a shallow breath. Even with the Valium fully kicked in, I immediately started to panic (though I didn't let it show). I asked if there was any way that I could have my scans without it as some techs had let me go without a brace before but the answer was no. So as I was moved into the machine, I said a little prayer and tried to take nice, slow, shallow breaths. I calmed down after a couple of minutes and survived. The tech was kind enough to remove the brace when she brought me out to inject the contrast and ah, sweet relief! I took several deep breaths during those few minutes. Then back on went my head muzzle and into the machine I went again. At least that time around, I was grateful to know that the biggest chunk of time was overwith (the scans with the contrast are much shorter than the ones without).

That afternoon, Max drove me back to the hospital to pick up 2 discs of my films (one for my Neuro and one for me) and much to my surprise, the girl in Radiology also handed me copies of the Radiologists findings/letter. I just stuck the letters in my purse, saving them for my Neuro to read. RIGHT!! I couldn't control my eyes...I read the findings as soon as I realized what the papers were. The information given seemed somewhat confusing as it indicated that I don't have anything in my neck (which I do) and that I have a tumor in my back around where I had my 1st tumor removed in November 2007. I tried to figure out whether I was reading the results wrong or whether the Radiologist was wrong. When I couldn't make a final decision, and being most talented in this department, I then borrowed a bit of trouble and went over the "what if's" in my mind for the next couple of days.

On Thursday, we went and met with my super fabulous Neurologist. He seemed somewhat baffled by the Radiologist's letters as well and we spent a while reviewing this year's back and neck films as well as the ones from July of last year. Turns out that I do indeed have a teeny tiny (as in 3-4 mm) tumor at the base of my spine, right around the base of my scar from the 1st surgery - in the L1 region for those of you who know what that means. But as I said, we compared films and found that it was indeed on the films from 2007. For some reason, it didn't react to the contrast very well and was very easy to miss. However, this isn't all bad news as it hasn't grown in the 18 months between MRI's and neither has the one in my neck. And speaking of the one in my neck, the Radiologist had indeed missed it. As my Neuro put it, "He gets a gold star for catching the one in your back and gets it taken away for not seeing the larger one in your neck." But it all honesty, both of these tumors are harder to spot. They each only show up in just a couple of shots and are small enough that they don't jump out. The one in my neck wasn't seen for weeks after my initial MRI's back in 2007 and was discovered by a Radiologist on the "Tumor Board" at my Neuro's hospital. But that's all beside the point. In the end, with neither of the tumors showing any change or growth, my Neuro is confident in how things are going and he's changing my MRI frequency for my neck and back to every 2 years instead of every year.

Another thing that was good to hear at my Thursday's appointment was that my Neuro has another patient with NFII who has around 10 tiny tumors at the base of her spine (same type of tumor as mine) and in following them by MRI for about 7-8 years, none of them has ever shown any growth. Here's hoping that this is what happens for me. If I have to go through the fun experience of having an MRI (or three) every year or two for the rest of my life, each time learning that nothing has changed, I'll gladly take it.

Ramble, ramble, ramble.

In short, the actual MRI this past week may not have been a party but the results were the absolute best that they could have been. Blessings from heaven.