These are images from my last visit at the National Institutes of Health. Every 6 months I have pictures of my brain taken using the Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine and every year of my spine. Then the images are compared to images taken 6 months to a few years prior to assess if there has been growth of the tumors. Sometimes the growth can be minimal as the tumors are generally slow growing. So that is why images are compared over a long span of time to accurately determine how much growth is taking place. My recent scan was compared over 3 visits (so a year and a half) and you can definitely see the tumor getting bigger. The one we are talking about is next to the brainstem and a cyst either filled with fluid or blood is protruding off of it. While some tumors have leeway to get quite large, this tumor does not because it starts to impede my brainstem.
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