Brain blogging

August 13, 2007

I just found out today I have a glioma (tumor) in the left parietal lobe of my brain.

About 4 months ago I started having some strange symptoms in my right arm and the right side of my face... numbness in the face but very odd sensations in my arm... I've been describing it as feeling like electric eels taking over the inside and outside of my arm. It lasts for 45 or seconds or so and happens about every 2-3 days on average (never 2 in one day, never longer than a week between). ANYway... back in the beginning I thought it was just interesting but when they kept happening I finally said something to my wife and we agreed I should go see the doctor.

I went to the local clinic and the doctor put me through some baseline neuro testing (Touch your nose, touch my nose, walk a tightrope, etc) and did some other tests (thyroid, EKG) and everything came back negative. She said the symptoms I was reporting could be caused by so many things that she recommended waiting to see if they got worse or new symptoms developed. Ten days or so later I reported to her that they weren't going away and there was more facial numbness than when we talked before. She set me up with a neuro consultation in the big city (La Crosse).

So 2 weeks ago tomorrow, I went and saw the neurologist, who put me through even more "touch your nose" testing and ordered a whole slate of tests - head MRI, chest xray, blood tests for Lyme, hepatitis C, and a whole bunch of stuff I'm not sure what it was. I went for the MRI last Tuesday and Thursday got a call from the triage nurse at the clinic that did the neuro consult. She told me the doctor wanted to do a CT scan on my chest. She said they had identified an abnormality on the head MRI and something they couldn't identify on the chest xray. I tried to get more detail from her and came away thinking they were saying I had a vascular abnormality in my brain and there was something on one of my lungs that might be connected to that.

So I spent the next day or so researching cerebrovascular ailments on the internet. Seemed a little scary but lots of room for "this may not be so bad... at least it's not cancer" sentiments.

Friday evening I found a voice message on my cell phone from my primary care physician - the country doctor who I saw originally. She wanted me to call her for me to report what the big city clinic had told me. I finally got hold of her this morning. She let me talk a bit about what the clinic had told me then said "Well I have a copy of all the reports in my hand and here's what it says in the reports." I've got a 1 cm glioma in the left parietal lobe. Tomorrow they do the CT scan to try to determine what the oddity is on the chest xray. If it's more of the same on the spinal cord, it's very bad news.

This was just after lunch. Lori and I were both pretty distraught and wound up coming home for the rest of the day. I have a cousin who has survived a brain tumor for almost 15 years now. I'm very anxious to talk to his parents about their (and his experience). Still waiting for them to return my call. Talked to my brother, mom, and one of my sisters. It's very difficult passing along information like this... knowing it's a bit of a bombshell.

It's all very scary of course but it helps knowing that the CT scan is tomorrow and Wednesday morning after visiting with the neurologist, we'll know a lot more regarding what's up. Been reading lots of stuff on the internet - trying to stay away from the horror stories and focus on how to go about planning and executing plans for treatment, etc. I am already planning on getting a second opinion at Mayo if it's at all possible. Kinda nice having the word "Mayo" in my health insurance plan.

Isn't life strange? The turn of a page....