MRI-Pituitary tumor?

[Maggi315]

I had an MRI 3 weeks ago after a sleep study showed I was waking up 116 times in 6 hours with no apnea or anything. I have a history of: Hashimotos thyroiditis, fibromyalgia, chronic migraines, and restless legs (which I take requip for and it works well, although makes me terribly nauseous).

The MRI showed a 3 mm growth of some kind on the pituitary, which my neuro said is probably a pituitary adenoma, I had lots of blood work, all normal so far. The rest of the pituitary looked normal.

I also had "white matter disease, unspecified" with "flair signal changes" in several areas and a 7mm area of "ovoid foci" which they said was possibly an "arachoid granulation". So my neuro did tests for lupus, lyme, infection, sed rate, etc. but all look normal. She said since I'm not having symptoms of MS or parkinsons, she thought it was probably due to my chronic migraines.

I'm wondering what other kind of tumors or growth could be on my pituitary and how worried I should be. Does a malignant growth look different on an MRI?

My doctor wants to wait 6 months and do a follow-up MRI, but if it isn't an adenoma, that makes me nervous. My grandmother died of a brain tumor because the doctors kept telling her that her headaches were just migraines and by the time they took a look, the tumor was huge, grapefruit size, she died 6 months later, so i guess that's why I am nervous to just ignore it. But when I called around looking for another doctor, they all seemed to think waiting was the correct thing to do, i couldn't even get them to take a look at the MRI and get it read by someone else.

Any advice would be great. I am an RN, so I have medical knowledge, but a little can be dangerous!

[jingle]

Hi Maggi ~ No fun, huh?
With my experience (but no "smarts":o ) I can tell you that a brain MRI, even a series, even the PET, cannot tell if a tumor is benign or malignant ... Benign and malignant do not always look any different. Again - the biopsy is totally necessary.

I'll bet you've read that the pituitary adenoma is benign but can cause miserable headaches.

If you're scared (and who would not be !?!?) and can't want the 6 months, phone your doctor again and again until he listens to you. Tell him just how upset and frightened you are.

Here's wishing you the very best. God bless and keep you.

[EarthMonkey]

I would also make it clear your grandmother died because the drs blew her off. While calling repeatedly. As far as I know it is not possible to tell from the scans every time. When I had the scans that showed my tumor they called it a lesion until the surgery was done and once they had looked at it they said it was a tumor. You might request the revisit to be done in three months not six and request they explain, until you understand, to you the reason they want it done in six months. You also might want to find out what their plan is in six months whether it shows growth or not.