It's NOT a tumor...

Depending on who you ask. We were anxiously waiting today, knowing that the Midwest Gamma Knife Conference was considering my case as a possible candidate for gamma knife radiosurgery. I didn't really expect to hear anything back immediately. I've already scheduled an appointment with one of their neurosurgeons for next week. But this conference is a weekly meeting of all the directors for this Center. They include a neurosurgeon, neuro-radiologist, neuro-oncologist, etc...

I got a call about an hour after the conference today. The coordinator says they don't think either of the two areas of contrast which show up on my MRI are meningiomas. In fact, she says those were the first words out of the neuro-radiologist's mouth. He says they're not meningiomas, they're "bone bumps." She said the doctor next week can explain much more thoroughly, but that they can see bone marrow in the growth, so they determined they are abnormalities in the skull and not invasive tissue.

I think that's good news. Because to me, non-invasive means they won't expand and compress brain tissue, which is the main concern of meningioma. I might not need surgery or any intervention whatsoever.

BUT, there's always that magical, mystical word to throw into the equation. Why is this the first time we've heard this:? Why didn't the first radiologist who read the MRI and provided a report see the bone marrow? Why didn't either of the 2 neurologists that we've seen or the 1st neurosurgeon indicate this? My thought is that most doctors don't really understand the MRI films themselves. They just look at what the radiologist puts in the report and it's "okay, I see that white blob on screen B6, makes sense to me."

I'm hopeful that this neuro-radiologist is a specialist, trained to look at films of the brain and that because he viewed my MRI films in this conference setting with a handful of other doctors, they were able to discuss and concur on what they saw on my films. We plan to discuss this at length with the 2nd neurosurgeon at the appointment next week. We're hoping we can convince him to order a second MRI immediately, and let another neuro-radiologist take a look to get us a concurring opinion. That would be a first! Doctors with the same ideas, thoughts and opinions on my brain!

Until then, we're just keeping our minds open and hoping for the best information.