Pituitary Adenoma

As promised, here's a brief update since my Dr.'s appt. on Tuesday. I have what's called a Pituitary Adenoma, more commonly called a brain tumor in the Pituitary Gland. Sounds scary, I know, but really, it sounds like everything will be allright. Allright? For some reason or another (studies have yet to conclude where these things come from!) I have this little tumor growing on the Pituitary Gland, that is secreting Prolactin into my body, essentially tricking my body into believing I'm pregnant, even though I've never been, nor am right now. So, maybe that's why I feel a little crazy sometimes! :) All joking aside though, the high level of prolactin in my body has confused and shut down some of my hormones, throwing everything out of balance. So, my Dr.'s solution (that I am having a hard with) is to put me on Bromocriptine, a low dose at first, to encapsulate the tumor, or just "turn it off", making my prolactin level return to "normal", which in turn should make my other hormones in balance once again. It sounds rather easy, if you think of it this way, though finding the right dose of this medicine is delicate, and every 8 weeks, I will be having labs done, to check my levels again. A few questions I walked in with, that I have been asked by many of you reading this include:
Is it cancerous? No, this is not cancerous, it's very rare for adenomas to become cancerous.
Will I be able to have children? Yep (at least we hope so!), according to my Dr. "everything" should return to normal within 6 months to 1 year.
Will I need to be on Bromocriptine forever? Yep, even through future pregnancies. Even when my body is working right internally again, I will still need to be taking medicine, to continue to keep the tumor isolated.

So, I think that sums it up. As homeopathic as I try to be, even my Dr. has nearly demanded I get on this medicine, simply because she doesn't want this to continue to grow, and require brain surgery down the road. So, I will fill my RX like the good girl that I am, and in the meanwhile, research like crazy, consult with naturopathic professionals, take my Shaklee supplements, and pray for God's healing hand. Tim and I thank you, blog readers, and friends alike, for your prayers and encouragement during this challenging time. We love you guys.

As far as everything else goes...things are chaotic. Moving, unpacking/remodeling/painting/working full time/etc. has been so time consuming, it's hard to believe Christmas is on Monday. Tim and I played "catch-up" last night, and realized we still need to finish our Christmas letter, that has now turned into our New Years letter, bake cookies together, and finish our Christmas shopping for each other. We plan on continuing the one tradition we've done for the past 3 years now, and see a movie on Christmas day. We are hoping to hit the mountain and do some snowshoeing as well. We are really looking forward to our 3 day weekend together. Last night, Tim and I went to Shireen's (my sweet 3 year old girl whom I've nanny'd for 2 years) Montessori School Christmas Pageant last night. It was absolutely adorable, I'll post pictures of the event one of these days. Well, Adios, Feliz Navidad and Merry Christmas!