double vision

[abouibrahimn]

Dears,

please can somebody anwser the questions?

can a mass of 4.3CM * 3.7CM * 3.8CM exist in the brain stem of a 6 years girl?
can this mass cause ONLY a little double vision?
what are the difference between lesion and tumor?
the doctor said it is a low grade glioma, and i read that inflammatory demyelinating disease mimicking brain tumor.
can this mass be a inflammatory demyelinating disease?

thanks,

[rumpled]

Who are the "lot of people" that are advising you, and where are they getting this information?
Have you taken this information to the doctors that are treating your daughter?

Of course, you can and should always discuss your daughter's treatment and health with her doctors - why is this not being done?

There is also a doctor forum here, you can ask them.

[abouibrahimn]

Dear,

my daughter finished the radiotherapy (31 sessions) on 2 july 2009.
her symptoms ( only double vision ) still the same till now except when she take
decadron during radiotherapy ( a very little double vision ).
1 month ago she fall down ( the floor was wet ) and immediatly after that
we notice a weakness on her right leg and hand extremities.
her doctor ask for IRM.
the IRM show decrease in lesion size but the area of enhancement inside the
lesion still the same and a new area of enhancement appears.
doctor said that is due to radiotherapy.
a lot of peaple advise that may be not a glioma but something like bainstem tuberculoma
because the sysmptoms still exist after the radiothrapy.
a skin test of tuberculosis is done 3 months later and was negative ( searching the internet found that the skin test is not accurate and a brainstem tuberculoma mimic
brainstem glioma and the tuberculoma treatement is like a diagnosis tool)

can the symptoms still the same plus the weakness on the extremities after only 2
months of radiotherapy?
can we suspect a brainstem tuberculoma?
can we ask the doctor for tuberculoma treatement?
any side effect of taking tuberculoma treatement with abscence of tuberculoma?
what is the effect of radiotherapy on brainstem tuberculoma?
can physiotherapy improve the weakness?

thanks for reading and replying
regards

[rumpled]

I am sorry, but I have no idea what you should expect but I hope you will tell us what the doctor says.

[abouibrahimn]

thanks,

can we hope that the next MRI show nothing due to the difference between the examination finding and the MRI finding??
we go to see the doctor in 3 days after she got the answer,
what should we expect?

Regards and thanks again,

[rumpled]

I am glad you are getting another opinion from doctors.
I hope your daughter did not have radiation for no reason though.

[abouibrahimn]

dear,

my daughter finished radiotherapy 3 weeks ago.
we follow up with another oncologyst who study the MRI and did a full neurological examination and several blood test.( the first doctor do nothing)
the result from blood and physical examination return excellent.( i am sure if the first
doctor did all tests, the result is same).
doctor give us the result by phone and she said like the MRI finding and the examination
finding are not the same and she have contact with other doctors in US and france,
and she is waiting the response.

my feel is that this brainstem glioma is not a brainstem glioma but another thing.

any comment??

Regards,

[rumpled]

I looked up Epidermoid and it said surgery was the treatment of choice, but then again, that is just internet searching.

Lesions in and around the brain are... not predictable. My father had one, my uncle and now my cousin. Everyone has been different in how aggressive, how they respond to treatment. My dad and uncle passed within 6 months of diagnosis. My own tumor, which is pituitary, grew back right away after surgery. The doctor cannot really give you straight 100% answers as, well, every body responds differently and while they treat as best they can, and they have protocols for treatment (such as radiation for hers), that is what they do and hope for the best. Radiation also takes time to work - was that explained to you? Plus the effects of the side effects may cancel out the good stuff for a while. When the inflammation goes down, she should get better - so it takes patience.I don't think the doctor has communicated all that to you.

I think it will be god for you to see another neurologist as another opinion, plus some detailed explanations should help you.

[abouibrahimn]

thanks,

i read that Epidermoid can found in the brainstem and when i see the image and explanation of Epidermoid i found maybe the same that it read from RMI results of my daughter.
what kind of treatment for Epidermoid?
can Epidermoid treated with radiotherapy?

2 days to finish the radiotherapy and we go to see another neurologist,
so we are confused what the oncologist said, one time he said wait until the sysmptoms
disappear after the radiation and then we will see and another time he said it is the only treatment.
little double vision then RMI then radiotherapy. no other examinations done except for her eyes.

dear, if you see my daughter before and after the radiotherapy you will see the same girl,
very clever, very motivated, so pretty.

we don't beleive she is doing radiotherapy,
we start with little double vision ( absolutley nothing else ) and we finish with radiotherapy.

many thanks,

[rumpled]

The doctors are hoping that the lesion is gone or reduced in size.
In the meantime, let her recover, rest, eat well, do what the doctors advise for supplements...
Do not forget to be good to yourself.

[abouibrahimn]

Dear,

after finishing the radiation, second MRI is scheduled is 3 months,
what could the result show?
what we should do during this 3 months?

Regards,

[rumpled]

The radiation is causing inflammation. The steroids were there to help reduce inflammation from the radiation. Right now, I would guess that the inflammation is greater after the radiation so that is why her eyes are a bit worse.

When the inflammation goes down, her eyes should get a bit better again.

Steroids also have side effects as well - I had a tumor that produced too much on its own - it was... awful.

[abouibrahimn]

Dear,

my daugther is about to finish the radiotherapy.
when she start the radiotherapy she start also to take decadron 2.5  2 times daily.
after 3 weeks of raditherapy and decadron the double vision is very small and
somtimes do not show double vision.
when she stop taking decadron after 3 week ( she take 2.5 one time daily for 5 days then 1.25 one time daily for 5 daus then she stop) we note that the double vision is a little more, and i read that the treatment of inflammatory demyelinating disease is steroid.
can the small increasing of double vision is due of stopping decadron?

Regards,

[rumpled]

MS is multiple sclerosis - which would be the most common disease that would mimic the tumor. Sorry I was not clear.

The brain stem controls a lot of nerves - it would depend on where the lesion is in the brain stem as well. I am only a layman, but in reading (and I sent you a link), it is possible.

Some people do not have a lot of symptoms until tumors are pretty large - brains and nerves tend to compensate a lot. Plus if she is young, she may not be able to really verbalize her symptoms well.

[abouibrahimn]

thanks,

but the size of the lesion cause only a little double vision?
what is MS?

Regards

[rumpled]

Lesion is tissue that has been damaged through injury or disease - it is just a general term and it encompasses tumor (which can also be call adenoma or a number of other terms).

Unfortunately, a tumor of that size can be there.

As for the suspicion that she may have MS, ask her doctors to run other tests to rule it out. Like you, I read that it can happen in certain cases,

I did find a document that said that double vision is a very frequent symptom of low grade gliomas in children.