What's in a name?
To prepare for PT school, students are often required to take the prerequisite of medical terminology. I loved medical terminology. Often medical words look like alphabet soup but once you know and understand the individual parts of the word you know EXACTLY what it means.
Let's break down "MENINGIOMA".
The meninges are a layer of tissue located between the brain and the skull. The meninges protect the brain by providing cushion between the brain and the skull. They also supply the blood vessels that support the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). The suffix "-oma" means tumor or growth.
The meninges are comprised of three separate layers know as the dura mater, arachnoid mater, and pia mater. Dura means "hard"or "tough", arachnoid means "spider", and pia means "tender mother". I learned recently that meningiomas actually arise from the middle arachnoid layer.
For whatever reason, my arachnoid mater decided it didn't just want to just be be the middle layer of cushion anymore and is now trying to steal the show. Now I have an abnormal growth that is about the size of a golfball squishing my brainstem.
Such a diva.
So, on the topic of names... several folks in my meningioma online support group name their meningiomas. Maybe I should too? Open to suggestions! Loving the idea of something referencing spiders.... Best suggestion gets a pat on the back or a high five, dealer's choice.
