two months until surgery

I had suddenly started having these ridiculously horrible headaches the same week I started researching internists in Greenbelt. I don't remember the exact days, but it was like Tuesday I started the research and Wednesday my skull felt like it was about to crack in two whenever I stood up or coughed. So I made an appointment for that Monday with my internist. Since I'm not prone to headaches, she ordered an MRI. She brought me into her office to discuss it and told me that I have a meningioma - an almost-always benign brain tumor.

Total, complete craziness. Seriously? A brain tumor?

After research and consultation and all that good stuff, I scheduled my surgery for January 19th at Georgetown University Hospital. Two months from now.

And I have to say, my anxiety levels went down immediately after getting off the phone with the surgery scheduler. It's hard to concentrate on anything else when there's this major surgery looming over you, yet you don't know when it will happen. Now I know. I have two months to prepare, to get everything in order with work, to get everything in order at home, to come to terms with having half my head shaved and to find a good solution for covering it while it grows back. I've started telling people at work, I've started spreading the news to my friends and extended family and I've started this blog.

But you know what's almost crazier than having a brain tumor? My neurosurgeon doesn't feel that the headaches were caused by the tumor - and they actually have gotten a lot better on their own. My sister's theory is that they were my body's way of getting me into that MRI machine since meningiomas are very often asymptomatic. And since they're very slow-growing, who knows how long I've had this sucker in my head. Probably not an excessive amount of time, but still. So random. Never thought I'd feel so lucky to have head-splitting headaches.