Specialists :: Endocrinology + Neuro-Opthamology

Today I had my appointments with both the endocrinologist and the neuro-opthamologist. I just wanted to record a quick update from today. I actually have more questions than answers from today, but at least we have the process started to hopefully start getting some answers in the near future.

Endocrinology

The endocrinologist asked a lot of questions and really tried to get a solid understanding of my health history. She seemed to want to truly understand what caused the tumor to grow in the first place, which is a good thing. She did a sonogram on my thyroid, and that looked fine. She is sending me to have labs done, and I will meet with her in another few weeks to learn the results of those tests. She obviously couldn't provide solid answers without getting those tests back, but she did throw out a few ideas:

• It's possible that my attempts at breastfeeding could have caused the tumor to grow {since my prolactin levels have been affected, and prolactin levels rise when you breastfeed}
• She does not believe that the medications I took for our frozen embryo transfers {estrogen and progesterone} could have caused it
• She believes it could be treated with medication, which would help it shrink {the neurosurgeon had told me not to take medication because he said that it makes the tumor more fibrous and more difficult to remove...so I will have to do some more research and find some more answers on that}

Neuro-Opthamology

The neuro-opthamologist checked my visual fields and all seemed to look fine. He was able to confirm {like we already suspected, since I haven't had any problems with my vision} that the tumor is not pressing on my optic nerve at this time {good news}. The concern is that it could press on my optic nerve, causing me to begin losing my peripheral vision. Even though everything looked good now, I will have to get my visual fields tested again in another 3 months to make sure that's still the case. 

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So...now we wait for more answers. I have recently started having more frequent headaches. At first I ignored them, because I thought I was just being paranoid and that it was just a coincidence {you tell me that a tumor could cause them, and then all of a sudden I'm getting them...}. But they have been pretty frequent {several per week}, and they can be pretty intense. So I can't ignore this. Not that an MRI showing a 12mm tumor near my brain isn't enough, but there's always that hope of it just shrinking on its own...wishful thinking.

There is still the risk that this will affect our future embryo transfers, which right now is my biggest concern. I cannot be on the tumor-shrinking medication when I'm pregnant. So I will have to find out what taking medication would look like, how long before the tumor shrinks {the neuro-opthamologist mentioned 2 years}, etc. If I have surgery to remove the tumor, I have to wait 6 months to 1 year before we can attempt another transfer. But I also can't just leave it alone and let it grow, because I can't risk losing my vision. So there's that. 

I am praying that the test results come back with some more answers on something hormonally that could be out of balance that caused the tumor to grow. Because then I feel like we can treat that imbalance. I am really struggling with all the "what if's" right now, and I am having to work on trusting the Lord with all of those details. He wasn't surprised by this tumor, and He knows we still have 2 more embryos waiting for us. I have to stop trying to control every aspect of this process and just trust that His timing is perfect...even if it doesn't look like it to me right now.