Brain Tumor

Well, Lauren has a brain tumor.

It was an "incidental finding" on the MRI she had to determine whether or not she had MS. (It's a no on the MS.) Now that the spinal tap and PET scan are done, her oncologist says that it looks like it's a low grade glioma. He has referred her to a neurosurgeon. We also have a couple of names for neurosurgeons outside of Austin. We'll send her records to at least one of them as well. 

The tumor is in the hippocampus, a more tricky part of the brain to remove, so we're not sure yet if they'll do a biopsy and then radiation or chemo, or just go ahead and remove it. (They remove half of the brain to cure epilepsy, so why couldn't they remove half the hippocampus? So complicated.) 

They also saw on the MRI what they thought was a spinal AVM that has been causing her leg pain the past five years. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the angiogram yesterday showed that the vasculature in her brain and spine is completely normal, so we're still searching for a more specific diagnosis for her leg pain. For now, it's still a Central Pain Syndrome. We'll continue tweaking her neuro and pain meds to address the symptoms.

Lauren is hanging in there. She's focused on moving forward with the process and she has a great attitude.