Adventures in brain tumors: Hormone Medications FTW!

Earlier today I did a full scan of my brain via an MRI procedure. It wasn't as bad as I thought, and I even got to listen to music for most of the procedure (and the radiology dude commented at the end "Nice tunes dude. Tapes 'n Tapes? Love that album").

In the past couple weeks I've felt a lot of changes in my body -- energy levels returned to the point I wanted to ride my bike again and I could literally feel testosterone coursing through my veins for the first time in years. I was hopeful these were side effects of the tumor shrinking which would allow my pituitary gland to regain function (it was being smashed by the tumor and deemed inoperable).

An hour after my MRI was done, my endocrinologist pulled up the shots and we looked at them together. She instantly noticed the tumor was smaller, much smaller. More than 50% smaller was her guess.

This was possibly the best news I've heard in my entire life

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More good news was hearing surgery is off the table, unnecessary as the tumor has shrunk down considerably and will in all likelihood continue shrinking to the point of nearly disappearing, ruling surgery out completely. I'm so glad I didn't let those cowboy surgeons from my first hospital stay drill into my head, as my doctor said it would have likely caused damage as not all of the tumor could be removed via surgery when I was first seen.

The next course of action is to continue monitoring my meds and hormone levels and gradually scale down my medications as my body hopefully begins producing and replacing what I was previously taking. The doctor was hopeful that in six months most of my body's functions could be back to normal with just a few long-term meds to maintain health and replace whatever remaining functions were lost or still on the mend.

So in summary, very good news today, a much better future ahead, and though I'm still not out of the woods yet, things are definitely looking up. And thanks, cabergoline for saving my ass.