Addison, Part III

Addison was re-admitted in March with pain. That sharp, shooting pain had returned in one of her legs. Uggg... never a good thing. Of course, the first thing we all assumed was that she had relapsed.

But Addison's MRI was not definitive. It didn't have any major new areas of tumor, and just showed a kind of diffuse "enhancement" everywhere. The neuroradiologist told us that could be several different things- relapse, radiation necrosis, infection, etc. 

Addison's doctor, the brain tumor doctor, went with radiation necrosis. This is a process that happens sometime in the window 6-9 months after tumor irradiation when you can start to see some of the normal cells in the radiation field die. This "necrosis" really just means that although the radiation killed the tumor, it took awhile longer, but it also killed parts of Addison's spinal cord.

But, no one could definitively say whether this was really the case. We all just kind of took our best guess.

Pain meds were increased. Addison was discharged and fairly comfortable. 

But in April, she came back to the hospital again. 

This time with one-sided weakness; her right leg was becoming weaker and weaker.

And guess what the MRI showed again?

Enhancement. More enhancement.