Where was I... Oh yea

Where was I... Oh yea - I would have been better off if the phone call had waited till after the weekend. Got it.

So, I get the phone call and Dr. P tells me I have a mass on my Pituitary gland. She really sounded concerned but assured me it wasn't life threatening or anything. Her opinion was it would have to be removed, if not now then sometime in the future. She confirmed my fax number and send me the test result. I thanked her for staying late and calling me (Lori was right and knew she would call), she said I would get a call on Monday about a neurosurgeon and we hung up. The next few hours were pretty much a blur.

I grabbed my copy of the report and jumped to the findings:

1.4 x 1.1 x 1.1 cm mass which I believe is arising from the inferior right lateral aspect of the sella turcica. It expands the floor of the sella turcica and protrudes into the right sphenoid sinus. This most likely is a pituitary tumor and given it's size would be considered a PITUITARY MACROADENOMA.Much less likely this could be arising from the sphenoid sinus tissue itself. To me it appears as though the floor of the sinus is being expanded infertile which would support an intrastellar origin.

Turns out it was exactly the opposite of what the person who read the MRI thought it was.

I google PITUITARY MACROADENOMA. and find out there are different types of these tumors. They fall into two categories, functioning and non-functioning. Without getting into a lot of "stuff" the difference between the two is the functioning ones secrete some type of hormone, non-functioning just sit there and grow. My initial research showed there are only a few treatment options and they vary depending on whether the tumor is functioning or non-functioning. The size of the tumor will help determine what to do as well. A non-functioning small tumor is something you may just monitor for growth and leave it alone. The other treatments are radiation, medicine, surgery or a combination of any of those.

As I said it was a long weekend. Lori was sick from our trip to Tim's (exposure to a pre-schooler... does it every time) and I was trying to catch up on work from being gone so it was a rough weekend to begin with. The thought of some type of surgery on my head (aka brain surgery) was almost consuming. We did our best to not think too much about the unknowns until we had a chance to talk to the neurosurgeon but it was hard.

Right on schedule Dr. P's office called with a name of a neurosurgeon. I called their office. The first available appointment is in January. "I can probably get you in in December but why don't you send me your reports. I'll review them with the Doctor and see if he can see you on Friday." [uh...OK]

[fax reports]

10 minutes later... ring ring - it's them already.

"Can you get a copy of the films and be here this afternoon around 3:30"

This actually made us even more nervous. We're thinking it's pretty serious, must be for them to get us in so fast. We went from January to December to "today". Now we had to get the actual films which typically they say they "need" 24-48 hours to prepare, and we need two tests from two locations.

Lori calls (she typically has better luck than I do with such things)

"Sorry Mrs Lyons but we can't get them that quick"
"But we just found out Friday at 5:00 My husband has a tumor in his head... We called the doctor and he needs us there today"
"We'll have them ready at 2:00"

Amazing how fast things happen when you have a tumor in your head. Fortunately we were too busy to dwell on anything but again, the urgency given the situation by those we were dealing with made both Lori and I even more worried. We arrived on time for our appointment. Then we waited. We finally headed back to the room (Lori and I typically go to the other's appointment) and waited some more. We've been to many doctor appointments over the years with Lori but this one ranks near the top on the anxiety scale. The nurse came in and did her thing then we waited some more.

Eventually a knock on the door (it probably wasn't as long as it seemed). A young lady came in. Turns out she was some assistant. She examines me including a peripheral vision test and basically tells us I don't need surgery and it should be OK if we just leave it and we could go. Or not I thought. How bout you let the doctor know we would like to talk to him I told her. About 10 minutes later some arrogant doctor comes in and comes close to berating us because we were even there. "She's right, you don't need surgery you need to see an endocrinologist. I looked at the films, you definitely have a pituitary tumor but it's not affecting you sight so we leave it. You shouldn't have come here till you saw the endocrinologist. If he thinks he can't do anything for you then we can remove it when you start going blind."

...

Lori and I were stunned. We just did what we were told to do. What an a$$. On the one hand we were relieved as we knew there was no surgery in the near future but wow, bedside manner much? We were freaked out. Would it have killed him to explain a bit more about what I had and what it meant? Guess so. We decided before we even left the office if I ever do need surgery he would not be the one doing it. Of course by the time we got out of there it was too late to call an endocrinologist. Tomorrows another day.

A couple of days later we went to see an endocrinologist. He informed us twice he has treated pituitary tumors before (not sure if he was trying to convince us he knew what he was doing or convince himself). He explained what I had and, depending on what type of tumor it was told us the treatment options. Everything he said matched the information I had found out on my own so that was good. He ordered a lot of blood tests and wanted to see us in two weeks.

Two weeks. So much for things happening quick. I was real busy with work so that helped. Sweeps period on TV so we had a lot of stuff recorded to watch at our convenience. That helped as well. Or at least seemed like a good idea. Then one night we stumbled across the episode of ER titled "Heal Thyself". It guest starred Anthony Edwards. ER fans remember him as Dr. Mark Greene - he died of a brain tumor. Yea... that helped