The Duck Egg, part II

Well, first off Allison is just fine. But she does have a really large arachnoid cyst. The doctor showed us her CT scan and it was a little shocking to see how big it is. It filled about 1/4 of her skull on the cross-section he showed us.  He also said that based on her history and facial features (asymmetrical head as a baby, wide-set eyes) she has had it since she was born.  He explained it like this: the arachnoid membrane that surrounds your brain, even in all the bumps and crevices, is kind of like saran wrap (he said that's exactly what it looks like) and when her brain/skull was developing in utero, that membrane started getting stuck to itself (just like saran wrap does) and got all bunched up on one side of her brain. It's filled with fluid so they call it a cyst. (It's not a tumor or cancer or anything like that.) It has caused her brain to be malformed because its taking up space where her brain should have been, but it hasn't caused any changes in her brain function. She's still as smart as can be and developmentally right on track.  He said if you were to put that much fluid into yours or my brain it would kill us, but since her's has always been there, her brain has adapted.

He said about 5% of Americans (millions of people!) have an arachnoid cyst, but most of them are found during their autopsy. Ha ha!  They just don't typically cause problems so they go undetected.  He wants to see her again in 6 months and do an MRI at that point and see if it is getting bigger. And she will see an ophthalmologist at that point also to check for any pressure on her eyes. If there aren't any problems, they will continue to just monitor it occasionally. There is a *small* risk of it rupturing, which would cause horrible, migraine-like headaches, blurry vision and vomiting and then they would have to do surgery, but otherwise they won't do anything. She can still play soccer and jump on the trampoline and do anything else she wants to do.  He said if she wanted to become an Olympian or professional athlete she may run into some problems because nobody would insure her. :)

So thank you for all your prayers and happy thoughts. We are very relieved!