Amber and I had our appointment this morning with the MS specialist. The appointment went well. As we suspected, we learned a little bit and gained some clarity regarding my condition but we still do not have a firm diagnosis. The doctor showed me my MRI scans for the first time so I actually got to see the lesion in my brain. I’m not certain why but in some way it was really helpful to actually see a picture of it.
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Apr 11
Falling Into a Greater Love…
As I lay in bed wide awake after only about three hours of sleep tonight I began to talk with God. Nights have become a frustrating time for me. Tonight, as I was praying, my frustrations threatened to overtake me. I began to feel like this ordeal was meant to punish me in some way rather than serve to purify me and Glorify God and show him as worthy above all things. I began to plead with God that he would turn from bringing this affliction on me. I prayed and prayed for sleepiness to return to my body. I only became more alert. Disheartened I felt the Lord calling me out of bed to be with Him. So I rose and here I am.
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Apr 11
Update…
The past eight days have been very peculiar days for Amber and I. Going into our appointment with the Neuro-oncologist this past Wednesday we weren’t really sure what to expect to find out. At the time, we were in the process of ruling out what we thought to be more obscure explanations of the mass in my brain. I think we were both under the assumption that my future held some form of acute treatment involving radiation or Chemotherapy followed by some longer treatment process in the hopes of shrinking and preventing growth of this mass. But when we arrived at the office, things took a very unexpected turn. Those things that we were testing for in effort to rule them out, actually became the likely diagnosis. One of the tests on my spinal fluid revealed “bands” [which I’m still somewhat unclear as to what that term means or measures] that are found in 96% of people diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
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Apr 11
More of these days…
It’s been quite a ride over the past two weeks. We’ve received a lot of new information and yet somehow feel like we haven’t arrived anywhere. Initially my general practitioner said that brain surgery was inevitable. After meeting with a neurologist on Tuesday and a Neuro-oncologist on Wednesday we have learned that in 99.9% of cases such as mine they do not perform surgery. It is apparently far too dangerous. They don’t even usually do biopsies because of the danger. So truth be told, at this point it seems we may never know definitively what this mass on my pons is made of. At this point they want to continue doing tests to eliminate as many things as possible and then treat it according to the best well-educated guess and see how it responds. Lots of tests and lots of MRI’s it seems. So that’s the medical update. Continue reading →