I had a couple MRI's and they found a "thing" on my olfactory nerve. They think it might be an arachnoid cyst*, but they haven't told me that for sure. And it's very small. (If you go googling these on the internet, you will find really big ones in people's heads.)
They want to do another MRI in a few months and see if there is any change.
That's where we are.
The stinky smell comes and goes. And we will wait and see!
At least it's confirmation that I am not crazy. Well, on second thought, that might not be true. It's only confirmation that I was not imagining a smell! Well, that's not exactly true either, because my brain IS imagining a smell since something is pressing on the nerve and there is not an actual thing in my nose that smells bad.
It might MAKE me crazy....:)
*I was really fascinated when the doc used the term arachnoid cyst. I first imagined a spider-like cyst with all eight of its legs wrapped around my olfactory nerve, clinging on like crazy. But, when I looked up how the term "arachnoid" came to be, it is not describing the shape of the cyst, but it is a cyst that is in the arachnoid membrane of the brain. It is called arachnoid because that membrane looks like a spiderweb.
Arachnoid Mater http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnoid_mater
Arachnoid Cyst http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnoid_cyst
Arachnoid Cyst Surgery. Warning! Ick Factor here! But I thought it was really cool how you could see just how "cob-webby" the arachnoid membrane really is. http://arachnoidcyst.org/surgery.php
It's still scary, nonetheless...I think it's great that you taking it all in stride. I myself detest bad smells (maybe that's from all the warrant searches we had to do in Oak Park, etc). I hope everything is well. I had a cyst on my vocal chords...made me "sound" like Nick Nolte too...plus all my friends thought it was great that I couldn't talk that much. But now all is well. Hope all is well with you...take care...
ReplyDelete