On Thursday of this past week I checked to see if the radiology report from my New Year’s Eve post-op MRI was ready. The purpose of this MRI was to check that I was healing well.
The health system I use makes these documents available via the patient portal. Any time I have an MRI (or bloodwork, or any other encounter with a test) I review the report and print a copy for my own records.
This scenario works really well because most of the time, I know what to expect. I thought this would be a straightforward type of thing. I’m feeling well, still in good shape, no changes. I’m not randomly vomiting or walking in circles or speaking German. I haven’t had a headache in a few weeks.
But this report threw me for a loop.
It said I have a subdural hematoma. And it also says I have another meningioma.
I already knew what a hematoma is. It’s the clinical term for a bruise. Logically, I thought having a bruise at my surgical site makes sense. There was trauma, the blood clotted to protect the site, and I’m only about a month out from surgery. I suppose this makes sense; thinking back, though, I do not recall the surgery team advising this was likely to happen, or even could happen.
Google results on “subdural hematoma” do not console. It is portrayed as an emergency, or at least a really urgent situation. Like, get into surgery now because your brain is going to be squeezed into oblivion. Subdural hematoma is often caused by a head injury, as you might expect, although it can also be spontaneous. In my case, it’s probably due to a vein being cut during surgery.
Physicians judge subdural hematomas on at least four criteria, so far as I can tell: origin, thickness, reason, and if the brain has changed due to the hematoma. The origin of mine is likely the vein cut, a casualty of surgery. The thickness of mine keeps it in the don’t worry about it zone. And the reason for mine is the surgery. I don’t have any other risk factors, like alcohol abuse or advanced age. The hematoma has not caused the midline of my brain to shift, so it seems not to be affecting anything–just looks spooky on the MRI. So, this is a watch-and-wait situation.
On to concern two, Meningioma’s Revenge. The report referred to prior imaging (done right before surgery) as a comparison, and said it was present on those images. So I went back and checked that report. It was not mentioned on that report… nor on the previous five years’ worth of reports. I’m not skilled enough to know what to look for on MRI images, except if it’s blatantly obvious AND has been pointed out to me, so I have no way to know what I’m looking for. My husband spent a while looking at the images, too, and the best we could come up with is that it’s a mistaken impression. But who knows?
I emailed my surgeon’s PA to ask about the two issues. She promised to follow up with my surgeon. So here I wait, trying to not let it ruin my weekend.
There are so many unknowns about meningiomas. It’s not like a growth you can see on or feel through your skin. There are no outward expressions of a meningioma’s development. There is no way to pinpoint when a meningioma begins to grow. Could another tumor have sprouted since November? It’s not out of the realm of possibility.
But I hope it is just the radiologist’s mistake.
40 Year Old Brain Tumor 