The Neurologist and a Pineal Gland

​I am the kind of person who is going to start research as soon as they have a question.  Not google, although I won’t deny pineal region didn’t go in the search engine immediately. But medical journals, peer reviewed journals, research article…data that is founded not on opinion but findings or the lack there of.  It often gets me in trouble and it is the way I have made my living for the last ten years. 

The pineal region of the brain is the most misunderstood and most under-researched. What is known is it has do to with the melatonin in our bodies but not really what else.  It is tiny and thought to be the Seat of the Brain and the Third Eye to spirituality. 

Neurologists have been trained to not interact with the pineal region of the brain unless they suspect the mass is cancerous, and even then, only if they have to. Surgery on this area of the brain is difficult and takes high-level technology, and skills, and with little research, the unknowns are higher than the knowledge available. 

In this area of the brain, the MRI needs to be with contrast and research shows that a delay in imaging produces more accurate results due to how deep it is in the brain. My MRI was non-contrast and showed a 12 x 8.5 x 6 mm cyst.  1cm cysts are known to cause symptoms and are larger than the entire pineal gland. 

I received a referral to a neurologist in Tulsa.  I looked him up; he had decent reviews.  I asked around, but no one said much.  I thought I was in good hands. Boy, was I wrong!  He was rude, dismissive, and unknowledgeable, but worse off he just didn’t have me the patient as a focus.  I would have been better off if he had been honest and said he didn’t know this region of the brain, but instead, he told me no one would consider my case no matter what the finding was cause no one does surgery in the pineal region. He didn’t care what I had researched, knew about my body, or felt.  He was happy with his copay and me out the office doors.  Little did I know that he dismissed most surgeries, not just mine. 

Dismayed and saddened, Bobby let me cry for what was the second time and allowed me to get it all out. Then we went to lunch and did what we do, decided how to move on, find more support, and find the next steps. 

The next day, a miracle happened.  A co-worker would come into my office and bring another provider with him.  The other person was a neurologist who was willing to show me the mass on the MRI I had on my computer. I needed to know what I was seeing on those scans and what lived in my head. But they did so much more.  They both were gracious, they talked to me about my symptoms, why I got the MRI, and the research I had reviewed, validated my right to learn and know, and encouraged me to fight.  

He also explained neurology and neurosurgeons better to me and shared how niche the specialties with that area can be, I began to understand.  This would not be.a simple journey, mine would be a fight to find answers from someone who is genuinely staying up to date on the pineal region, someone who will listen, someone who will care, someone who will walk the journey with me and my family. 

I had hope again that the answer that was found was not nothing but just needed a suitable someone to help. 

Another miracle happened, a text from a valued friend came with a question and a new referral option. 

New appointment, new guy, new location coming in September.  I'm praying he can lead me in the right direction and not simply be dismissed. However, I am now prepared.