I received some preliminary results back from my brain MRI scans and it turns out I’ve got some squiggly lines in my brain.

Squiggles.

This wasn’t the ‘official’ appointment to get results back because the tumor board has not yet gathered to look over my scans and slides (shoot, because of a mixup I haven’t even had the MRI’s of my spine done yet!). No, this was just the routine checkup with my radiation oncologist in order to make sure my back was looking good, etc. Here’s how it went down.

Prior to the doctor coming in the nurse pokes her head in the room and asks “have you talked to your brain surgeon yet?” “No” “Ooohhhh, the doctor just wanted to know.” (and then awkwardly closes the door)

Jess and I exchanged knowing glances–realizing that there’s only a few reasons why my brain surgeon would have need to schedule an appointment. India, picking up on the tension, exclaimed “Oh shit!” (I swear she didn’t learn this from me!)

The doctor comes in and asks nonchalantly how I’m feeling. “Your leg doing ok? How about your head? Any headaches or blurred vision?” (it’s as if she thinks that asking these questions causally will keep us from picking up on the fact that she’s fishing for something!) “Nope, everything’s been really good!”

“Well we got your brain scans back and I thought we’d briefly look over them in anticipation of the October 12th appointment…”

So here’s the dealio yo, essentially when I had my previous brain MRI done in June there was a small blip, an ‘artifact’ that could or could not be anything significant. The good news is that this spot has not changed, it hasn’t grown or done anything…though it is still there. The bad news is that there are two additional ‘artifacts’ in my brain that were not there before. The radiologist referred to them as small squiggles. The largest of the two new squiggles is 2.5 cm in length and does not have much mass to it. Neither looks like a tumor because of their lack of mass and three dimensionality. BUT the reality is that two new things have popped up in my head. The only new things you want popping up in your head are good ideas…not artifacts…or squiggles.

It’s abnormal for something like this to pop up and she really had no idea what to say about it. Her only comment was that “nothing about my case has been normal thus far and on October 12th when the tumor board gathers (with my spinal scans as well) they will put their heads together and try to figure out what this might be.”

So until then we wait. We wait knowing that there’s something not right. It could be the beginning of tumors. It could be brain infection. It could be something else. We really have no idea and none of these options would be considered within the realm of normal.

Gotta love being abnormal.

I think India’s got it right. She might have a potty mouth…but I think she’s got it right.