Scar on the brain?

New diagnosis and before diagnosis
1

Hi everyone

Still no MRI results despite chasing on the phone and via email. I feel like it can’t be serious or I’d have heard by now but at the same time the waiting is so hard

Anyway I was talking to my rehab team about whether the newer symptoms could actually be new post hemorrhage stuff could be caused by scaring on my brain following the crainiotomy. It would make sense because scars take a while to form and I do scar excessively and also because of my bone disease I over heal when I fracture so it makes sense that I have over healed having had a part of my skull removed and put back.

As I say this could explain why I got new symptoms 8+ months after the original trauma. If my MRI shows scaring, will that be different to lesions?

I hope this makes sense!

2

Sorry I thinj the jibberish in the middle is because I c&p into an email to spell check!

3

Hi Fee,

Looking at your profile, I see you have survived a brain haemmorhage and brain surgery. I’m certainly no expert, but from these, I would expect there to be scarring of some sort.

Having said that, they must know where in the brain the previous haemmorhage & surgery were, so it should be easy to tell whether the scarring now seen is an obvious legacy of that, or whether it’s something quite different.

Apart from that, the scars caused by a haemmorhage and/or surgery would normally appear quite different to an MS lesion, I’d say.

So even if they had somehow mislaid records of exactly where the haemorrhage was, it should be fairly easy to distinguish from other abnormalities.

So in short, I really don’t know…

In someone with your history, I’d certainly expect them to find a scar. But whether they mean another scar, unrelated to that, I can’t tell.

Unfortunately, MS, although serious, is not generally considered a medical emergency, so I’m afraid you don’t get an urgent call if they’ve found something that looks as if it could be that. On the plus side, I’d say they don’t think you’ve had a further haemmorhage though, because I’m sure you would have been admitted, if they thought it was that. So I do agree that whatever they saw, they can’t have thought it needed urgent attention.

I know it’s hard, but I’m afraid you will just have to wait for the appointment, when they explain the implications to you.

The “scar” could be a suspected MS lesion, or they might just be talking about the scar we know you should have.

Tina

4

“Scar” just means something visible left after a wound. Scars on our bodies are very different to the scars MS makes so being prone to scarring easily or overhealing doesn’t have any relation to whether or not we might get MS scars/lesions.

Bruising easily, scarring easily or overhealing is something that the neuro should know though because it might be a clue to what’s going on (if it isn’t MS).

Karen x

5

Thnk you

My rehab team are totally seperate from the neuro who is investigating this newer set of problems so they are just speculating as am I.

Trust me, there was no question as to wether another haem was the cause of the problem, I would KNOW 100% if I ever went through that again. From what I have read a surgeon would normally ask if you suffer from excess scaring before doing an op but in the case of my brain surgery there was just no time to ask.

Normally when you recover from a brain injury you can expect to see improvement in your symptoms and I have done, from the symptoms that were identified early on as being caused by the brain haem. Then I started to get new symptoms and that isn’t expected. Because scars take a while to form and because I do over scar and my bone over heals I guess I have got a bit excited thinking it could be that rather than MS or something else.

I am not very good at waiting to be honest. I know that is why I am despretley trying to figure this out on my own because I don’t even know when I will finally get some answers. I have had so much uncertainty since my brain exploded and it makes me anxious. They should know that really as it is all linked to the brain damage in various bits on my brain, well that and nearly dying a couple of times already.

Thanks for reassuring me that thee would be a clear difference between scars and lesions though. I am sure the neuro did ask and I did tell her about bruising, scaring and over healing when I saw her originally because it is partly linked to the bone disease. I don’t know how some of you manage in limbo land for years because I am about 4 months or so into my stay and I have to say the room service is terrible!