Ladies and gentlemen, the wait is over - it is formally identified as a benign meningioma!
This is very very good indeed. If you were to list out all the different types of brain tumour, and then have to pick one to have, benign meningioma would be your choice every day of the week.
There was enough active tissue there to identify it as a meningioma - so I'm not a complete pebble head. But in general, these beasties grow at the feeble speed of about a millimetre a year so it's all now distinctly non-urgent.
I'm going to be referred to a radiologist to discuss what we do next. There are two options, with neither being right or wrong. The first is to have radiotherapy now, hoping that we put it to sleep. The second is to monitor it for the time being, and then radio it at a later date if it is causing problems or puts on a growth spurt.
The radiologist will be the person to talk to, it being her job to be the expert in these things and help me make my choice. I'm sure I will write about the arugments each way at some point, but right now I can't think of anything other than 'Benign! Benign! Benign!'
I'm off to find some chocolate
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Is "Congratulations!" the right thing to say? Crikey.
Sarah, does it help to know there are random strangers on the internet that have been rooting for you?
Anyway, does this mean you've now got the trump card at dinner parties, the ultimate conversation-stopper? "Well, that really does sound awful, nearly as bad as my brain tumour."
There must be some mileage to be had out of it. "Look, don't mess with me, I can do what I like to you and the jury will always let me off." One heck of a way to end an argument!
Do they let you keep pictures of the scans? An uncle had an awful case of encephalitis that destroyed over ¼ of his brain tissue. In a coma for months; it took him ages to learn the most basic functions but within a few years he was driving again and living on his own. His use of language is fascinating; he has no proper nouns and often has to resort to adjectives. Anyway, the point of this story is he has copies of the scans because he was used as a case study for students. They are amazing to look at and he's very proud of them. Although he is at pains to point out "Who's to say I had the brains to start with?"
So, are you going to give your pet rock a name? Benny, perhaps?
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Fab news, Sarah. Yay!New comment
Well that's cheered up my Friday morning.
I was feeling a wee bit low knowing what was ahead of me at work today but that news has put things into perspective. Marvelous, absolutely marvelous
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Smiles and hugs.