Thursday, April 19, 2007

My wierd husband

So my husband is officially weird. A specialist has confirmed it. Remember when I was complaining about how he wasn't normal? Turns out he is not.

We found out on Tuesday that the bump on his wrist is not a ganglion cyst. The MRI report showed it was most likely a malignant tumor. Yes, as in a cancerous growth. The hand specialist could not give us any more of a diagnosis since this is out of his area of expertise.

Let me tell you that was a hard 36 hours. Trying to not think about the fact he could have cancer & what that would mean. Luckily his friend, Christie Ann, took us out to dinner on Tuesday & bought us champagne & whatever we wanted off of the Fresh Fish Company menu. So I got lots of very yummy crab. And yesterday we just tried to stay busy & think positive thoughts.

The hand specialist referred us to a limb specialist who would be able to give us a more clear diagnosis. We met with him today. He told us it is either a cyst with an artery running through it or some kind of tumor or an arteriovenous malformation, which is basically abnormal growth of the artery.

He thinks most likely it is the arteriovenous malformation. And he thinks the chances of it being a cancerous tumor are low. Which is good news. The other good news is that the nerves, tendons, muscles & bone marrow are not affected. And the blood flow to his hand is good.

We went & got a doppler ultrasound after visiting with the doctor. The doppler ultrasound shows where the blood is flowing & also showed if the bump was solid or liquid. We should know later today or tomorrow morning what the doctor thinks of the ultrasound reports & what the next step is. He was going into surgery right after he saw us, otherwise he would have gone over the report with us while we were there.

He also thinks this could be linked to the headache. Which, oh yeah, I have been asking the doctors since the beginning, if these headaches could be connected to something else in his body. They always think I am weird for bringing up any new family history or any new symptoms. But I don't know that much about headaches & I do not want to leave anything out that might help them diagnose what is wrong with my husband. Maybe I was right for asking all this time.

We had already gotten his neurologist to agree to a MRI of the brain (with & without contrast). Which he has not had one of since the headache started. I know, we have been asking for one, but since the head CT came back fine, all of the doctors felt it was not necessary. Luckily we got his new doctor to agree to it.

Even though it sounds scary if this what is causing the headache, at least we would know what is wrong & what we need to do to get rid of the headache (and the wrist bump). His brain MRI will be next week some time & we should know more tomorrow about the wrist. I will post more as I know.

2 comments:

Coni Sanders said...

My goodness......... well if nothing else you know now that your "wife gut" was giving you accurate information that something was wrong.

Hang in there girl - let me know if you need a coffee break!!

Coni

ellen said...

Well.... how was the MRI? I am sure you won't know anything until a dr looks at the results but do you know anything? I am way to impatient!!!