Welcome! If you would like to read more than this first post and/or receive updates, please click on the FOLLOW PAGE link above and you will be asked to create a login. Once you create a login, you will get emails as soon as we post updates and you will also be able to access all our past updates that have more recent news than what is below. Thanks for your love and care! Jacinta got some news on May 22 after being admitted to the ER. Her lifelong migraines have gotten more intense over the past decade and particularly more disruptive to her normal functioning within the last few months. She has had three recent bouts - two of which landed her in the ER - with migraines that were accompanied by extreme nausea, vertigo, and near loss of consciousness. In all three of these recent cases, the episodes caused hours of intense agony, followed by a five day recovery period in which she slowly regained her energy, steadiness, and ability to function normally. On her second visit to the Kingston Hospital ER, they did a CT scan and found what Jacinta has taken to jokingly calling the “Island of Misfit Cells,” while it’s technical term is a meningioma. The meninges is the membrane that lines the skull, enclosing the brain and spinal cord. A meningioma is a growth of cells on the meninges. It is inside the skull, but outside the actual brain. The CT scan appears to show a growth about the size of a golf ball (we later learned it’s more like a gum ball) on the top part of her brain, just to the right of center. The doctors and nurses all say this is a “good” spot for such a growth because it’s not near the eyes, ears, or spine, so there are fewer sensitive areas that the meningioma and it’s removal could adversely affect. Meningiomas are benign 90% of the time and slow growing. So this has probably been growing there for a long time. Right now it seems that if Jacinta doesn’t have a migraine episode triggered, then she won’t have to visit the ER again. So she is taking it nice and slow, keeping away from migraine trigger foods, and not letting herself get overheated. Basically she has cancelled almost everything on her schedule, is doing a lot of yoga, low key tv watching, reading, and resting. We have been in the midst of lots of learning, research, and planning. She got an MRI on June 3 to get a clearer picture of what we’re dealing with. We are awaiting results which will be passed on to her primary care physician, neurologist, and a neurosurgeon named Dr. Donato R. Pacione at NYU Langone Meningioma Center. He comes highly rated and will be having an initial consultation with us June 10 via telemedicine. If she chooses to go with this neurosurgeon, all other visits will be in person in NYC. This division of NYU only deals with meningiomas, so this is likely our best choice of all hospitals and was recommended by our friend Jen Gentile who was a nurse in a neurology unit for 6 years. Thanks for all your support and love. -Michael and Jacinta