So far, so good!... but no answers.

Sorry I haven't updated sooner. Here's the latest:

We met the neurosurgeon Monday and he was unimpressed with everything. He doesn't even know for sure if the smaller spot is an actual tumor. He wants to watch for 4 months, do a repeat MRI and see if the larger tumor grows. The size doesn't concern him, since it's not causing any problems for me. But he wants to establish a growth rate.

I could have had it for 2 months, or 20 years. If it grows half a centimeter in 4 months, he'll recommend we remove it. If it doesn't, he'll say let's do another MRI in 6 months. I guess that's good. But I'll feel better if it hasn't grown after the 4 months.

As far as the mini stroke. So far no indicators of any problem. Cholesterol and blood pressure are good, arteries in my neck as "clean as a whistle", blood is not overly thick. I have one final test this Friday, where they sedate me, I swallow a scope, and they look at the arteries in my heart.

All this is to determine if a small spot that showed up which could be dead brain tissue is the result of a mini-stroke. It could be damage from migraines, or even childbirth, and not actual damage from a stroke. But we'll know more after they're done with everything.

In the meantime, I've had to stop taking my birth control pills. Not a big deal, except that I tend to get ovarian cysts. The pill helps with this. Since I stopped taking them a couple of weeks ago, I developed a cyst, which burst last Thursday overnight. The pain can only be compared to a kidney stone. I felt a twinge, got up to pee, and found myself lying in the bathroom floor, trying to stay conscious. Luckily, I called for Troy and he came in to check and didn't walk on me in the dark. About 30 minutes later, pain was gone, and not a problem since.

Here's the hitch, my OB says without any oral hormones, this may happen again, every month, at random. The pain I can deal with. I've passed 16 kidney stones for heaven's sake! But the fainting unexpectedly, not so easy to accept when I'm driving or home alone with the kids. Thankfully, I have a great OB who's helping to work this out with the neurology folks. He thinks some good options exist, if they'll sign off. If not, we may get a second opinion from another neurologist, since this seems like a pretty big deal to us.

That's it for now. More to come later this week and as we learn additional information. Thanks for everyone's prayers and support!

*** footnote***
Our weekend away was AMAZING! We slept, ate, shopped, I had the greatest massage of my life! and we finally convinced ourselves to come back and retrieve the two kids. We have to do that more often!