As we were eating breakfast, the nurse practitioner came in and told me the results of last night's MRI. There was no obvious increase in cranial pressure that would be causing the left eye deviation. The new blood that was at the surgical field a few weeks ago is significantly decreased. And, all of the spinal lesions are gone except one. I immediately burst into tears of joy when she told me that. I felt so encouraged that there was such a difference after only two rounds of chemo. I know we still have a long road ahead of us, with more chemo and recovery from the brain surgery, but knowing that the chemo is working will make the harder times still to come a bit easier to bear.
One of the neurosurgeons came by to tell me the MRI results as well. He said the ventricles in Collin's brain are plump, but have not increased in size at all. He said another lumbar puncture could be done to check the pressure, but before recommending the procedure, he wanted to have input from the ophthalmologist. The ophthalmologist finally saw Collin this evening. He dilated and examined Collin's eyes, and said he's not yet sure what is causing the increase in eye deviation. One possibility is just that the muscles that turn the eyes in are stronger than the muscles that turn the eyes out; another possibility is that there could be cancer cells in the CSF that are irritating the nerves. He is recommending a LP be done to check for the presence of cancer cells in the CSF. Now Collin will have to wear a patch on both eyes for two hours a day; we could patch the left eye on odd days, and the right eye on even days. The patch will help preserve his vision until the eye deviation corrects itself after further recovery from brain surgery, or until surgery can be done on the muscles behind the eyes to correct the problem.
This afternoon we got to go down to the rehab gym for physical therapy. Collin walked with the walker, worked on leaning while maintaining his balance, and standing from a sitting position. He did well, and enjoyed being out of the room. After therapy, the nurses from the home health agency showed us how to use the feeding pump, and explained how their services will work. The first few days at home will be a time of adjusting and organizing and scheduling all of Collin's care. Caring for Collin, meeting his needs, taking him to clinic appointments and therapy appointments, etc. will be a full time job, but I'm feeling more confident about handling it. It will be a challenge for me to let go of the other things at home that I would normally want to resume doing but won't have the time for just yet, like housecleaning, etc. and to ask others for help when I need it.
We finally got Collin out to see Holly the therapy dog tonight. I've been wanting to do this for the last 4 weeks; you'd be so surprised now difficult it can be to get one small boy out of a room and down the hall for just a few minutes. The last few times the therapy dog was here, Collin's counts were down and he couldn't leave the room, he was throwing up, having an X-Ray, or sleeping. But tonight we were able to make it happen, and both Neya and Collin enjoyed seeing Holly. Neya was proud to be able to give her three treats! A video about Holly:
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