SALLY: It would be very sad to not be able to see
my kids’ beautiful faces, watch them grow up.
I’d be really devastated.
DR.
UDANI: So Sally was recently pregnant.
She had twins, and during her pregnancy, she noticed changes in her vision.
SALLY: So I have like a field, a pretty good field
of vision still, but it’s not as good as it once was, and I don’t want it to get
worse.
I don’t want it suddenly be like this, like in a tunnel.
DR.
KULKARNI: Here’s your field of vision.
This is your right eye.
You can see how up here there’s this black area.
You had some trouble seeing the lights.
Here’s your left eye.
And again, up here, you had some trouble seeing the lights.
SALLY: When I go like this, I know something’s
happening up there, but I don’t, you know, see it very well.
So it’s kind of like this outer ring.
I rely on my eyes for everything I do.
From work to play to parenting…
DR.
KULKARNI: She said, I was pregnant, my vision got worse
peripherally…I delivered, it got better.
And to a normal person that might not make any sense, but to me, it was screaming loud
and clear “I have a pituitary tumor.”
DR.
UDANI:
So we did an MRI scan and it showed a tumor arising from the base of the skull which was
unfortunately a brain tumor.
DR.
KULKARNI: So here’s the right and left eye.
We traced the optic nerves going back towards the brain.
Bam!
That’s the pituitary tumor that we found.
SALLY: For a single mother with twins, it was pretty
alarming to have to deal with that with 9-day-old babies.
DR.
UDANI: Most likely, this is a benign tumor.
Which means it’s not going to spread to other parts of her brain.
It’s not cancerous.
That being said, nothing in the brain is truly benign because if it continues to grow and
we don’t treat it, it can lead to blindness, and eventually it can compress her brain stem
and lead to death.
SALLY: Well, it’s important that I hold on to those
memories…I just love gazing into their eyes…what if the pictures go black?
That’s terrifying.
DR.
UDANI: So the surgery is done through the nostril
and that takes us straight back to the base of your skull.
If we had to do this surgery in the old days, we’d have to make an incision in the skull
starting at the top of the head, coming down to her ear, pull her scalp forward, remove
this bone and then work underneath the brain to get to the tumor.
Now, fortunately, we’re able to do the same surgery, but through her nose, and still be
able to remove the entirety of the tumor.
SALLY: I’m taking a deep breath and hoping it all
works out.
It’ll be scary kind of looking at them for the last time before surgery, for sure.
DR.
UDANI: This is our neuro operating room.
This is our microscope which we use.
This will give us a direct view to the skull base.
These sensors pick up a signal and it tells us exactly where in the brain we’re located,
and it will show me on the screen exactly where we are.
ADMITTING NURSE: What are your babies’ names?
SALLY: Sophie and Lexie.
NURSE: See, I’m distracting you.
SALLY: Yes, I know.
NURSE: Flowers and puppy dogs!
SALLY: I have plenty of those too.
NURSE: You do?
SALLY: I have four dogs.
NURSE: Four dogs?
SALLY: Yes.
DR.
KULKARNI: For Sally, like most of the population, losing
vision is one of the main fears they could possibly have.
DR.
UDANI: This is all for the image guidance.
Once he registers her face, it’ll link it to the scan that we have which will show us
exactly where we are in the patient’s brain.
Looks good, Rory.
So this is all bone at the base of the skull that we remove to get access to the tumor.
So now we’re just opening the lining of the brain.
So this is all tumor right here, all this yellowish tissue.
We’re just picking away at it, removing it piece by piece.
Here’s some tumor on there, Jackie.
Here’s some more.
So we did get a preliminary report on the pathology.
It looks like a pituitary adenoma, a benign type of tumor.
It’s not cancerous, so that’s very good news.
And the fact that we were able to remove everything that we saw means that hopefully she’s cured
at this point.
DR.
KULKARNI: You did awesome!
SALLY: Is it any better?
DR.
KULKARNI: 100% better.
SALLY: Yay!
DR.
KULKARNI: Let me show it to you because it’s pretty
impressive.
Here is your right eye from last time.
And here it is today.
SALLY: Wow.
So that’s dramatic.
DR.
KULKARNI: It’s all cleared up there.
Here is your left eye.
SALLY: Yay!
DR.
KULKARNI: You’re cured.
Good job!
SALLY: Thank you.
DR.
KULKARNI: That’s awesome.
Being able to look at the visual field before she knew the results is the best part for
me, because I know her vision is perfect now and I get to go in and give her the good news.
SALLY: Peek-a-boo!