I love pictures. That’s why I majored in History of Art – the books have pictures. However, until yesterday I could not view my radiological images on my computer, and I had only seen them briefly on Rusty’s computer. The world is a much better place now that I have downloaded OsiriX for Mac and can look at my own imaging on my own Mac. Needless to say, this has been a huge time sink for me the last 48 hours, and will continue to be so for a few more days while I revel in the thousands of pictures. (Then a few more days while I measure, and compare, and compile data. I love wading through a big pile of data. Really, I do). In the mean time, here is an MRI shot, from my very first MRI. This picture is taken without contrast, and one of the first in the series. No wonder the technician got so nice during the MRI.
For those of you reading along at home, the circle in the middle of the white stuff on the right side (radiological images are reversed, so that is actually my left side) is the abscess itself. The white stuff is swelling (edema). Side and vertical shots show the swelling was that size all the way up and down my brain, so the entire midsection of the left side of my brain was pretty much shot. The swelling was filling up the ventricle (the butterfly shape in the middle) and pushing on the right side of my brain. That is why the midline of my brain curves (midline shift). It also – I can tell you this from experience, not the MRI – was pushing my eyes out of their sockets, pushing on my sinuses so hard that it felt like someone was literally pushing from inside on my cheekbones, and down on my teeth (on the left side). It was quite painful by the time this MRI was done. Remember, I went to Trader Joe’s and drove home after the MRI. I had driven two children and a dog down from Tahoe in a blizzard 3 days earlier. I might have rethought those decisions if I had known what was inside my head, but never expect a neuro patient to be self-aware…