can someone hold my hand? think I may have a brain tumour

[thinkofthemoney]

I am literally shaking and crying and need some hand holding.
I have had pulsatile tinnitus (heart beating in ear) and hearing loss for some months. Went for a MRI 2 weeks ago and consultant has called today to say 'there is a small area of enhancement in the internal auditory canal which may be artefact but further high resoloution scans advised to rule out tiny mass.'
Now I know this may turn out to be nothing, or if it is a tumour is obvioulsy very small. However I feel sick.
Really need some positive stories and i know people are going through far worse than this but I think I am just in a bit of shock.

sorry not had any experience in this at all, but just to let you know im thinking of you and hoping for the best. stay positive, and try to talk to people in your family xxx

They are covering all possible aspects to find out the cause. Its better they catch it now than you wait until it cannot be treated. It is hopefully just a lot of fuss about nothing. Medical care these day mean that people do survive now when they never used to.Try to think positive and enjoy christmas. It could just be a something simple, i hope it is, but my thoughts are with you. xx

Or if it is a tumour it may well be benign....

Horrible for you but try and keep in mind that in the UK it's not enough for doctors to say "we're 85% happy that all is well" - they have to be 99.9% satisfied.

My niece has recently had surgery for endometriosis (bear with me) but had to go through loads of scans before as the blood test they use (which they also use to look for indications of Ovarian cancer) came back as "a massive result" and far far higher (more than 3 times higher) than would be normal for endometriosis.

As you are under 60 (I am assuming) then statistically it's very unlikely to be anything nasty.

Do you know when they are going to do the next scan?

Thanks for the quick and lovely replies. Consultant is booking the scan as urgent but it obviously won't be before Xmas.
I know that most tumours in this area are benign and slow growing but it is still a shock. I'm naturally a glass half empty person which I really need to work on and try and enjoy Xmas with my dc without dwelling on this. Will be very hard!

Okay - just done a quick Google search for you (don't do it yourself - Dr Google is NOT your friend - been there and done it).

Lots of causes of pulsitile tinnitus but brain tumours were not listed apart from in the "other rare causes" section.

It also said that even if scans came back clear you should still insist on more detailed scans because occasionally it is caused ny blood vessel malformations which could put someone at increased risk of a stroke. At the very least you are getting these extra scans without having to fight for them.

I would put money on this being nothing and just "artefact" as the consultant says.

Thankyou I'll keep you posted.