Many Diverse Surprises

Walking into the north wing, eighth floor, of the vast UCSF Medical Center, a person passes through a huge kind of portal above which is written, "Brain Tumor Center." At UCSF, everything is called exactly what it is. Earlier, for example, we had seen a sign for something like "Fetal Intervention." That kind of took my breath away.

As we passed through the portal, we could see that the whole outer wall of our department was glass - a long corridor looking out over the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, the tops of houses in the foreground and the hills of Marin Headlands in the distance. That took my breath away, too.

We sat there waiting, my son Walt and I, admiring the view and from time to time checking out the cordoned-off streets directly below. It wasn't filming, we surmised, because there was a television truck there. Maybe it was some kind of race. . . but on a Tuesday? Suddenly we heard an enormous explosion. Racing to the window, we could see smoke pouring out of the television truck. Finally we realized that it was filming, and that the explosion was all part of the plan. My goodness, this was not what we had expected while waiting to see the head of Neurosurgery for what I hope would be the final word on these two tumors of mine - my benign meningiomas.
It all made my prognosis seem slightly anti-climatic. No, said the very knowledgeable Dr. Berger. No, the vibrating is not being caused by the tumors. Keep on with the physical therapy which is reducing those symptoms.

But - here was the surprise - in people "as young as you," meningiomas are likely to grow fast, and if mine do, they will have to be surgically removed. What this means for now is frequent MRIs, and maybe someday I'll get to wear those hats Sarah gave me for after surgery. And maybe not. I'm obviously rooting for not.

After that, we went out into the sunshine of a beautiful day in a beautiful city and had fabulous salads for lunch at La Boulange. Final surprise of the day - at La Boulange, macaroons come in many flavors. Both the caramel and the pistachio are delicious!