Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone. To new beginnings.....

(I have a CT scan and a heart ultrasound booked)

Updates soon....

Just met with my Neurosurgeon

So I woke up this morning and walked to the hospital. Pitch black and freezing cold.

Which always makes me wonder why people a hundred years ago bothered to move here. It's bad enough when you have all the comforts of a rich 21st century country, but imagine living in this when you had a log cabin and rode around on a horse.
The Indians didn't even have log cabins!!!

Anyway...I digress.

I met with the neurosurgeon and he gave me the run down. Told me the worst case scenario so that he'd be covered legally in case the worst case scenario took place.
Check. I get it.

Next, he showed me how the procedure would unfold. Up through the nose and into the little space between the skull and the brain.

So I then signed off on the paperwork and the Doctors are going to begin putting the teams together to get this done in January!!!
I wasn't expecting that!
I thought maybe March or something.

I will be in the hospital for 3-4 days because they want to make sure my pituitary gland is working properly. I may need to take a bunch of med's to ensure the body balance doesn't get out of wack. Salt, water, proper hormones etc.

He's done three of these exact types before and all of them were successful. My tumor isn't that outrageous so I am really hoping this works and I won't require life long medication.

Anyway, the next step is a CT scan and then they are going to do another MRI before I go into the operation. The CT scan will help give a mapping of my bone structure and the second MRI will give a new mapping of my pituitary gland. Then they plug all that into their systems and begin doing the operation.

So long for now.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

MRI

Okay, so the next step in this process is to go for an MRI.

I decided to do it privately. For international readers, Canada has a Universal publicly funded health care system. There isn't a lot of private health available.
As a result, everyone gets really great health care cover regardless of their ability to pay. Health care as a human right if you will.
The downside....
Health care can take a long time to get. Think of it like a grocery store. If the food was "free" you'd have to stand in line a lot longer to get your stuff.

I decided to spend the $1020.00 for a private MRI. One of the few things in Canada we can actually do for ourselves.

I showed up and they put me in a tube on a table and I spent about 40 minutes getting pictures of my skull transposed onto their crazy imaging computers.
They also injected me halfway through the process with a "contrast". This just helps the computer take better pics. It didn't hurt.

Anyway, got the results and the tumor on my pituitary is 10mmX11mmX5mm on the left side. It hasn't spread too far and wide and it isn't wrapped around my optic nerve or carotid artery. It extends a little bit from the pituitary itself and is considered a "macro" because it's over 1cm in size. (barely)

I feel pretty good about it. I've heard some stories about people who don't catch their conditions until they're in their mid-40's and it can be the size of a golf ball...totally encompassing the pituitary gland. (Even then treatment works, but the process is a lot more involved)

So I'm in a good place.

Now I meet with the neurosurgeon who will be performing the surgery on me. Dec 22nd is the date. Looking forward to it.

Take care everyone,
Jeff