You Just Couldn't Say Good-bye

It has been almost a month since I had my follow-up to the follow-up MRI to check the status of Mike Wazowski and his residence in my brain. If you follow this blog or you know me, you know that in September of 2015 I was diagnosed with a tumor on my pituitary gland. A tumor that even the neurosurgeon described as HUGE. From the MRI pictures you could see that the tumor was a big round circle with a smaller darker circle inside of it. The smaller circle looked like an eye, so I "lovingly" named the tumor Mike Wazowski. In July of 2016 I found out that after surgery, Mike was still hanging out, at least part of him, and he had brought along a friend, a cyst growing in the exact same place where Mike had been evicted. Surgery number 2 in November 2016, Follow-up MRI in February of 2017, and finally, Follow-up to the follow-up just last month. The good news is the cyst is gone. The other news, I won't call it bad, is that Mike has left a little piece of himself with me. I knew this right after my second surgery. There was a little piece of the tumor attached to a blood vessel in my brain. As I'm sure you can imagine, that's pretty delicate stuff. The neurosurgeon couldn't just go ripping things off of a blood vessel, and so Mini Mike was allowed to stay with the understanding that his blood supply would be cut off, and he would be getting a weekly dose of Cabergoline, a drug that inhibits his growth. Just last week I saw my neurosurgeon to find out how Mini Mike was dealing with these terms. Here's the good news about the "not bad" news. Mini Mike hasn't invited anyone else in, and he hasn't gotten any bigger. He's just staying right where he was, away from my optic nerves and anything else that might cause me trouble. Dr. Sahni, my neurosurgeon, and I decided to just let Mini Mike stay, and, for now, we would extend his conditional lease for another 6 months. Did I want him to move out totally? Absolutely, but I guess he just couldn't say Good-bye, and, for now, I'll indulge him as long as he goes by the rules.

It's Not Brain Surgery...Wait! Yes It Is!

The big white spot in the center is the tumor.

On September 9^th I went to the eye doctor. It had been over a year since I had had an exam, and it seemed that more and more issues were coming up with my vision, especially at night. I went for the exam, and if you’ve ever had an eye exam, you know they put this big machine in front of your face that looks like a huge, bionic pair of glasses.

 The room is dark, and they show you on the wall in front of you, about 15 feet away, a strip with four capital letters, black on a white background. They test one eye at a time. First up – the Right eye. I could see the first 2 letters fairly clearly, the last 2 I couldn’t, and when I say I couldn’t, I mean, THEY WERE NOT THERE! Not fuzz, not unclear, ABSENT! I blinked my eyes, and they would appear briefly, but fade away to invisibility. I told the doctor this. He switched to the left eye, same problem, but I could see 3 of the letters, the 4^th pulling the same disappearing act (reading right to left.) We finished the exam. He turned on the lights, and was writing out my prescription, ready to send me on my way. I stopped and said, “Wait a minute! What causes that, the letters disappearing?”

He paused a moment, then decided he might dilate my eyes, and “take a look” I waited for my pupils to dilate, then went back into the room and he looked into my eyes with a light as bright as a thousand suns for what seemed like forever. Then, giving you the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version, he told me even though I was very young to have it, I had the beginning stages of Macular Degeneration. If you don’t know what that is, it is an incurable eye disease that would eventually leave me almost blind, no central vision at all. He told me about some vitamins I could take to help slow down or stop the process, and told me some foods to eat that would help and sent me on my way. As I often do in these life changing moments, I took to Facebook and posted a brief summary of what I just shared. A very good friend, who happens to be an OD, immediately commented, “Get a second opinion.” Shortly after that I was at an event with my sister, and she said, “You need to go see someone else about your eyes.” Ironically they both recommended the same person, Dr. Juan Astruc. I saw him on September 30^th, and after 2 hours of tests and scans, and staring into the light and dilated eyeballs, Dr. Astruc came in to tell me I did not have Macular Degeneration. WHEW! Big sigh of relief! I’m not going blind. Then he said, “The next thing I say is going to freak you out, but don’t let it freak you out. You have a tumor pressing on your optic nerve,” quickly adding, “it’s benign.” YAY!....I have…a tumor!?? Wait. What? He went on to explain that they were common enough that he had the neurosurgeon on speed dial, and that the surgery wouldn’t be invasive, they go in through your nose. I’d need to have an MRI, but it was all treatable and everything would be fine. Fast forward to last Monday, October 12th. I had an MRI and saw the neurosurgeon, Dr. K. Singh Sahni, the next day, and he showed me the films. The tumor is a pituitary tumor and is larger than they thought. It has affected almost all of my peripheral vision, and we have to move pretty quickly, as in less than 2 weeks from today, I will be recovering from brain surgery. Naively when Dr. Astruc told me that they would go in through my nose, I was thinking it might even be outpatient. Boy, were my eyes opened. 4 to 5 days in the hospital, the first night in ICU. I am trying to get used to the idea, and don't know if it has fully hit me yet, but I know all is well, and what is going to happen is going to happen. I'm in good hands. Readers use this as a cautionary tale. If I had not gotten a second opinion, I would be well on my way to going blind, and not because of Macular Degeneration, because the tumor would continue to grow until irreparable damage was done to my optic nerve. Listen to your body, and be your own advocate!