Adventures in brain tumors: some ups, some downs

Another week, another set of appointments.

This week I did a long appointment with an eye doctor, had an ultrasound of my heart, and then checkups with my neuro surgeon/endocrinologist. The eye appointment was excruciating as it involved many dilation drops over a period of around three hours. Once per hour I'd see the doctor or a gaggle of residents for five minutes, then they'd depart with a "we'll be right back" and sure enough, 55 minutes later they would return. Not the most efficient use of anyone's time and not the best way to set expectations. The upside was that I am showing no visual impairment beyond what I've already got. This is great news because if I was having visual field problems, spots, or headaches, that'd mean the tumor is butting up against my optic nerves and surgery would be sooner rather than later.

The ultrasound on my heart was done to make sure I don't have any heart valve issues as some of the hormones I'll be taking could lead to detrimental effects on them. I did the same thing about ten years ago when a doctor thought I had a murmur but I never got the results (UCLA Medical center was a confusing morass back then). I'm curious what my heart looks like now. A highlight of Friday's visits was taking the OHSU tram from the old hospital down to the waterfront.

The results of my last endocrinology appointment came up and it seems that my tumor is responding well to the drug treatments, but possibly too well. While my initial thought on hearing we've reduced prolactin amounts by 80% in three weeks was good, it was too soon to mark that into the win column. Too much reduction too fast could lead to an air gap that would leave me prone to infection and even meningitis. We'll do CT and MRI scans to be sure in the future.

After that news there was a new blood draw to check my testosterone, prolactin, and potassium levels, all of which were a concern at my first checkups. Thankfully, I'm now hooked into OHSU's patient extranet system so I'm hoping updates will be quicker than once every couple weeks and can be done over email soon after tests are completed.