Hi,

I had an appointment with the neurosurgeon's nurse practitioner on 6/25.
They had known for days that my neurosurgeon wouldn't be able to attend
the appointment but he reviewed my May MRI and shared his feelings with
the nurse practioner so she could tell me what the plan is.

I have two lesions, the colloid cyst that has come back in the 3rd
ventricle (original craniotomy in 2001) and a meningioma close to my
optical nerve. Right now there is no obstruction and no hydrocephelus
so the feeling is that we will wait and do another MRI in September to
get a history of these and how they are growing, etc. I had an MRI in
April, May and now will have a 3rd in September.

In the meantime, I have been educated on hydrocephlus signs. I know the
major ones but I needed info on the less obvious symptoms. They are
also going to burn a cd of my MRI and mail it to me so that I can have
it with me in case I have an emergent situation with the colloid cyst
causing an obstruction and I am not in town. This way I will have the
most recent pictures with me in case I need to go to another hospital
when outside the area.

I am pretty comfortable with this decision. I really do not want to go
through another craniotomy unless I really have increased ventrices from
hydro or an obstruction. However, the meningioma may need to be taken
care of soon with radiosurgery since it is close to the optical nerve.

We we do the next MRI in Sept as I said and re-evaluate. So I am "off
the hook" so to speak for summer. However, and I should have already
known this but... it was confirmed that I will need to be followed for
life. We now know that colloid cysts can come back and the meningioma
even when radiated can regenerate itself. So I am in it for life with
MRI's and follow up.

Its funny when people aren't concerned about tumors when they aren't
cancer. Granted cancer stinks but benign tumors and cysts can be just
as deadly in some cases.

take care

Jodee



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