TheBanyanTree: Mutant mutates or just gets older?

[Julie Anna Teague]

Yes, Janice, unfortunately, I've experienced the bliss of an MRI, with 
the heavy metal cocktail for high definition.  I am also very bad at 
holding completely still and not swallowing for minutes at a time.  
Every muscle in my head seemed to twitch and itch, my skin squirmed.  
My salivary glands went into overdrive, producing bucketfulls of saliva 
that had to be surrepticiously choked down between chirps and beeps of 
the machine.  I was deathly afraid I was screwing the whole thing up 
and we'd have to do it again and again until I trained myself to never 
swallow.

The magnetic resonance and molten metals buzzing through my head 
uncovered a small tumor on my pituitary.  In some belief systems, the 
pituitary is the organ involved with seeing one's life truthfully and 
living in harmony with that truth.  I fervently worked on some 
spiritual healing after the diagnosis, worked with a reiki 
practitioner, and participated in some very healing workshops.  Also, 
between the first MRI and the second, I divorced my husband, after 
being separated for many years but afraid of stepping off into the 
un-health-insured unknown.  A heavy, miserable load was lifted from my 
life, and I could finally live a life that felt true and right.  Six 
months after the first one, a second MRI showed that the tumor had 
disappeared.  Coincidence?  That's a point of discussion between me and 
God.

Here's a paragraph from something I posted right after the MRI:

"The really funny thing was that as soon as I popped out of the MRI place
with the headache from hell, I jumped in the jeep and cranked on the radio
and the very first sound out of the speaker was a line from a Springsteen
song, "Felt like someone took a knike kinda edgey and dull and cut a six
inch valley through the middle of my skull."  Now, you have to laugh at
something like that because that is the universe's way of saying, "Laugh
dammit".  And you just gotta sometimes, to keep from crying."

Thanks for sharing your story.  Wishing you all the best, and some 
laughs thrown in for good measure.  And let us know how things turn 
out, ok?

Julie