Researching fool or better yet a fool researching....

After the initial shock had worn off, I decided that I needed to be as informed about brain tumors, symptoms, prognosis, treatment, and recovery.  I had one week between the MRI and a followup appointment with the ENT to find out what was going on.  Of course, I already knew! But I had no idea what this tumor was.  

I can honestly say, the first thing that comes to mind after seeing such an image, is just a overwhelming sense of fear.  I was absolutely powerless to help my wife.  I had no idea what she was about to go through.  So I made it my mission to educate myself as much as humanly possible.  I had one week to figure things out.  

The automatic reaction to seeing and realizing that something is growing inside a skull is not a fun reaction.  However, I needed to dig in and start figuring out how I could help.  I started with wikipedia and looked up brain tumor.  There were some general descriptions about the different types of tumors and being the optimist I followed the link to Meningioma (follow link to read description). I was immediately struck at how similar the image from my wife's head looked like the image of a meningioma... finally a little bit of relief.  

I began searching google images for Meningioma tumors and I became more convinced that this is what was growing inside Jenny's head!  The majority of these tumors are benign and usually can be removed completely depending on the location.  There are a few options for treatment- Gamma Knife, Radiation therapy, and surgery.  The course of treatment depends on the size and location.  Fortunately, in Jenny's case this tumor is located in the best possible location.  It's called a convexity tumor and is located on the upper right hemisphere of the brain (the images look like it's on the left, but it's actually on the right side).  It not wrapped around optic nerves and all that really important stuff deep inside your head! 

The tumor is not growing within the brain tissue but rather growing into the brain.  If you can imagine pushing a baseball into a large sponge then you have a good idea of what is happening inside Jenny's head.  These tumors originate and grow from the dura that wraps around the brain and spinal cord.  They are more common in women (almost a 2:1 ratio of women to men) and a lot of research indicates that these type of tumors have receptors for progesterone and estrogen.  Some pathology reports indicate that these types of tumors look very similar to fiberoid tumors that can grow inside a uterus.  While I was not 100% sure what we dealing with, I was fairly confident and much more relieved at this point in time.  

So the next question, if you have a tumor than who should treat it? I did some simple searches on google for "top neuro-surgeons in Indianapolis" etc. etc.  I immediately came across the name Scott Shapiro.  He is the chief of neurosurgery at Wishard Medical center and a professor of Neurological Surgery and Indiana University Medical School.  He also happened to be the surgeon that operated on Lance Armstrong's brain when his cancer metastasized into his brain. I also spoke with another Doctor that is in my furniture/woodworking class and he spoke very highly of Dr. Shapiro.  So I had the name of surgeon that seemed to fit the bill.