Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Montana's Brain

I got a disk with Montana's CT scan images today. Here is a really cool picture of her head from the side. They took this at the beginning of the scan so they could set the coordinates for the machine to take slice-like images of her brain. You can see her teeth, and her sinuses at the top of her head, and lots of other cool stuff:


This next image is not so cool. This is a slice of Montana's head, behind her eyes. The two big black round things at the top are her sinuses. There is a little bit of her forebrain in the middle below them. Bone shows up white and tissue is shades of gray.

As you can see, most of a dog's head is muscle, not brains. Looking in that grey circle in the middle of the image, can you see a black irregular blob in the top left-hand corner? Also, see how the whitish midline is displaced to the right? That's the tumor. Please let me know if you can't see what I'm talking about.

Montana is still happy, oblivious to the neoplasm in her cranium, and seizure free. She sure loves going to work with me everyday.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing Pics,Jenn. Your description of the tumor's location was easy to see. I'm still bummed about this whole ordeal,but I know she's getting the best treatment ANY dog could have. Give Montana lots of hugs for me!Love-Bevie-

Unknown said...

Yes, I too can see the tumor. It hurts to see it staring back at me. I wish it weren't in our dear Montana's head.

Anonymous said...

In the first pic I can see her nose and eye........and the flowing of her ears
With your description it is easy to see the invader. Awww ... I wish I could fix it.

Emily said...

Wow...it's bigger than I thought it would be. I'm glad she's oblivious to it and still her happy self. She probably sees going to work with you every day as such a treat!

Anonymous said...

You are an amazing Doctor and explain things so well, especially to those of us not medical savy! I too can see the ugly menace - glad she is doing well. Love you, M

Anonymous said...

Wow,Jennifer...that really explains what a tumour looks like...your description is so easy to follow..you are a clever lady and we are proud of you....poor Montana..do you think she is in any pain at all? xx

Jessica said...

Wow. That's really cool that you can see Montana's brain! I mean, yes, very sad that Montana has a tumor and that all these scans were necessary, but amazing how much we can learn from technology. At least Montana is rather oblivious to the whole thing. I hope you are all doing well! I miss you!