It has been an interesting roller-coaster ride. The MRI scan was last Monday. I had a bad feeling about it and I was certain the medics had found something - the way they pointed at the computer screen and talked animatedly and then came to give me the injection of the contrast dye before doing another scan. But of course they can't tell you at the time. I actually got quite depressed the following day. I was supposed to get the results on Thursday March 6, but the neurologist called to say that I should come in urgently on Wednesday - which of course meant bad news.

The neurologist said I have a benign brain tumour - an acoustic neuroma that has also caused almost total deafness in my right ear. I've probably had this for 10 years (when I first noticed some loss of hearing) so it is now quite big - and according to the neurologist was probably now pressing on the trigeminal nerve. So the neurologist booked me in to see a neurosurgeon two days later - on Friday morning - to discuss my options. In the meantime, my tegretol had to be increased to 1200mgs per day to try to stave off the spasms.

But then on Friday I had an interesting session with the neurosurgeon. In his opinion, it is unlikely that the tumour is causing the TN as it is only 3cms whereas they are usually 4cms before they interfere with the trigeminal nerve. He feels that it is more likely the usual compression of the nerve by a blood vessel that is causing the TN.

So I now have two things to be dealt with.

peace

stewart-tn