The first appointment. A brighter day.

All I knew is that we were going to see this doctor for some answers..that's all I could deal with. We went to the office and waited for over an hour. I could barely stand to wait any longer. We were finally called into the exam room and waited another 15-20 minutes. Dr. Guttman came in and he asked us to tell him what was going on with me. We went through the whole story. He gave me some neurological exams like walking....on my heals, toes, regular. He had me doing things with my arms, testing strength in my arms, legs, etc. He then turned to the MRI films. It became obvious that he did not like the quality of the pictures (keep that in mind for later). He told us that I most likely had some kind of Glioma, which is a type of tumor that grows over a long period of time, is benign initially but can accelerate in it's growth and must come out. Dr. Guttman had said that he didn't feel that the tumor was actually inside the brain, but outside pushing in and causing the parts to be displaced to other areas. As he showed us the pictures, he also pointed to another area at the top of my spinal cord. He said he didn't really have any explanation for this, but that there was a collection of spinal fluid there...maybe from the tumor pushing things out of the way. He recommended another MRI that would describe the type of material the tumor was made of. We asked a lot of questions and I was able to get a sense that this was most likely very treatable by surgery but we couldn't speculate on the make-up of the tumor until after this special MRI. I left there with some definite feelings of relief. I heard what I needed to hear. It wasn't a death sentence at this point, it is operable and there is reason for hope and optimism. That afternoon was so nice. he sun was out, it was warm and I was able to bring my stress level way down. I sat in the backyard and enjoyed the weather. I prayed a lot that afternoon and I was so cautious not to get to optimistic as we had 2 appointments set up for wednesday. Just that little bit of relief was so nice and much needed. I had the sense though that Sue didn't have that same feeling.