A Picture of Grizelda

Yesterday the doctor gave me a copy of the MRI showing Grizelda’s location, pictures of the actual surgery, and the pathology report. The MRI showing Grizelda is taken from the bottom up so that what looks like it should be the right side is really the left. The picture is especially interesting to me, and so I thought I’d share it. Don’t worry, though. I won’t share the pictures of the actual surgery. They are very graphic and pretty gruesome, but I liked seeing them. After all, how many people get to see the inside of their own head? But I’ll be kind and not impose it on you!

The pathology report showed that Grizelda was a benign intraorbital tumor of unknown origin. At first they thought Grizelda was a lymphangioma, but the final report concludes she was a cavernous hemangioma. My research describes a cavernous hemangioma by saying, “These tumors are benign by cell type but can have serious consequences. Cavernous hemangiomas are wild, jumbled growths of blood vessels fed by numerous tributary arteries (making surgical removal extraordinarily difficult and risky in most cases).”

In other places in my body, Grizelda might not have been much of a problem. But as you can see in the MRI she was twisting and pinching off the optical nerve and would eventually have caused blindness. But I can see! Hallelujah, I can see!