Unexpected Birthday Present

Today, is my 27th birthday! I have had a wonderful day thanks to Jeff and my mom and my incredible friends and family! But, I received a very unexpected gift only a couple of hours ago when I talked with my neurosurgeon and he recommended not doing the brain biopsy. It's kind of complicated but I'll do my best to give a reader's digest version. Here goes:

Originally, we were scheduled to have an MRI on Monday and the biopsy on Wednesday. But, on the day before Thanksgiving, I woke up and had some numbness on my foot. So, we came back early so that I could get an MRI on Saturday. The thought was that the new symptoms may indicate that there was a second brain lesion, which would point more to MS than cancer or a viral infection and we wouldn't have to do the biopsy.

But, the MRI on Saturday gave us information we didn't expect. First, there was no second lesion so we don't know why I have numbness in my foot. They also found that the lesion was still there but it wasn't metabolically active. Before Saturday, the lesion had always taken up contrast fluid, indicating that the cells in that area were doing something. They were either demyelinating the surrounding neurons or they were duplicating (as in the case of cancer) or they were fighting off a virus. But, now, they're in a more dormant state.This is obviously a good thing except that it means that, if we do the biopsy, we're unlikely to get tissue that would give us a diagnosis. Given the lesion's location, there's already a moderately high risk of hemorrhage with doing only one biopsy but the risk of bleeding is greatly increased by doing two biopsies if this one doesn't give us enough information. So, we have to wait. I'll probably come back to Colorado in early- to mid- January to do another MRI so that we can go from there.

I really don't know what to think about this. Jeff and I are totally dumb founded. On one hand, of course, it's a good thing because I don't have to have a biopsy tomorrow. But, I was really looking forward to a diagnosis. It's so weird - I was actually disappointed about NOT having brain surgery. But, my rational self knows that this is really a good thing.

I'm sorry that I haven't called or emailed everyone personally yet. However, I wanted to make sure to get the information out there so that no one was worrying tomorrow.

I have SO appreciated all of the incredible support I've received. Please do something nice for yourself or for a loved one as a birthday present to me :)