Unexpected news

Mark had his 1 year MRI today in Fayetteville. His 6 month MRI was in Little Rock and it came back clean so we had no real deep thoughts of this appointment causing concern. It was such a low priority that I didn't even go with him! That apparently was a mistake we will not make again. He got to see some of the pictures although he didn't get a printout right then and he said he saw white again in the area of the hole in his head. This is bad news because brain matter appears gray-ish and the hole in his head is black. The brain will not regenerate so nothing should be in the big hole except black. White could be bone but in this case white indicates something non-brain in that area which is something. We were expecting nothing. The prognosis after his surgery was that it was a birth defect and that it wouldn't grow back - but they didn't really know. These are rare and they never really know how the brain will react. It is all case by case.

He got to talk to Dr. Runnels who is the first neurosurgeon we saw a year ago who told us it was a tumor in the first place. Dr. Runnels did a quick glance at the scan and is going to send it to Little Rock to review. So now we wait. We have asked for a copy of the scan and have a copy sent to our primary doctor here for records.

This is a helpless time. There is nothing we can do but just wait and live our lives. Usually Mark feels pretty good except for occasional headaches and pressure in his head. Otherwise we are both in the best shapes of our lives! We exercise and play with our kids. Every day we enjoy our lives which will not change. He isn't going anywhere any time soon.