03/05/2024: Waiting Patiently!

 Updated 03/05/24


I barely slept last night- the headache and the heavy eyelids had me tossing and turning in bed. When I woke up with the whole left side of my face feeling numb, it reminded me of the Bells Palsy I had in grad school circa 2000. Back then, it was much worse- my left eyelid wouldn't close, I wouldn't breath with my left nostril, hearing loss on the left side, etc. It honestly wasn't that bad today. 


I called the on-call neurosurgeon anyway, just to be sure. He convinced me that it all still points to the sinus infection and none of it changes what we already know about the tumor. He reminded me that the CT scan I was to get later today would confirm just that.


Bachi took me to St Vincent's for the scan.  That place was bustling! The entire Portland appeared to be there, wanting to get expensive pictures of various pieces of their anatomy.  The lady at the counter was especially chatty. “Gooderham- what a weird street name?!”, she remarked casually while verifying my street address. I probably should have felt insulted, but I laughed out loud. It did sound like something Taara used to say until very recently. “My drawing is gooder than yours”. “Your roti is gooder than mine”. We had another chuckling moment when she asked for my insurance card and I produced Raaga's, and I was even about to give her date of birth instead of mine. “That never happens with dads around here”, she said quietly enough for Bachi to not hear it. I laughed out loud, again. 


It was funny how my conversation with that lady lasted much longer than my CT scan itself. The technician that ran the scan thought my sinuses didn't look that bad, but that the ENT will call me in a day or two to give the full report.


I had a routine dentist appointment after that. It was hard to sit through the whirring sounds of the hygienist’s scraping tools with my escalating headache. I managed to survive. 


By the time I got home, the CT Scan report was on my chart, but it had too much medical language for me to understand it. I forwarded the report to a physician friend as well as a neurosurgeon contact in India. Both confirmed what I have is sinusitis, and since the infection is still very much present even on Day-11 of antibiotics, that they may want to change the medication/treatment course for it. More importantly, both of them said it is unlikely for the tumor to cause any of this, as the headaches are usually milder with meningioma.


Bottom line is that there are two distinct issues going on with me- the one that put me in ER (Sinusitis) and the meningioma- and they are expected to be completely unrelated. 


Next steps:

  1. 03/06-03/07: ENT review of CT scan and subsequent treatment path

  2. 03/14: New neurosurgeon consultation and firming up surgery timeline

  3. Angiogram (TBD)

  4. Surgery (TBD)


So, more waiting on the cards.

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