This past Tuesday, my neurotologist showed me the MRI pix of my brain. That in itself was (irrationally yet compellingly) worth the price of admission, but they also found a possible clue in the mystery of my sudden hearing loss: One of the MRI scans revealed a tiny, white, lit-up spot right on the edge of the labyrinth (the semi-circular canals that are the body’s gyroscope) in my right ear. My doc showed the slides to four other neurotologist colleagues, all of whom agreed unequivocally in their diagnosis: it’s clearly an unidentified lit-up phenomenon (ULP).
They ruled out imaging glitch (meaning it’s officially a “something”), leaving two most likely possibilities. Statistically more likely, it could be a simple inflammation from a recent viral infection in that area. The other possibility is that it could be a tiny (2 mm) acoustic neuroma (a benign tumor a.k.a. labyrinthine vestibular schwannoma), but it would be the rarest of the rare to find it in that particular location, right by the basketball hoops (though i wouldn’t be too surprised; as Glen told me, “Well, you are a person given to growing in unusual ways”).
They told me to get scanned again at the end of May and we’ll see if it has gone away or become a giant slobbering Miyazaki blob-monster. The thing is, i’m not sure their diagnosis would make much of a practical difference for me, since allopathic medicine would be my very, very last resort. Whether it’s a tumor or something else, the treatment modalities i’d try first are likely to be more or less the same: acupuncture, herbs, veggie juices, enzymes, meditation, good (mono) music, a nearly irrepressibly positive attitude, and a few extra laps in the ocean of love in which i’m so fortunate to live…
Still, pretty cool to get to see my own gray matter. 🙂
Thoughts? I'm listening…