everything we know as of today

Hi all!

Ok, i'm going to try and organize this the best way I can. And....here we go.

The growth in Jack's brain.
The area of growth, which is about an inch in diameter, appears from the MRI to be from a combination of bleeding and swelling.  While the great news is that the actual tumor appears to be the same size, the challenge at this point is to figure out how to stop the bleeding and the swelling, and start working on reducing both of those things simultaneously.

Why is there bleeding and swelling?
From what I understand, Jack is dealing with 2 types of bleeding that occur in the brain.  Necrosis is bleeding that happens within the existing tumor as the cells die off, mostly caused from radiation.

The other bleeding is around the tumor and is creating additional pressure on Jack's brain - which is why we are facing these new challenges.

Both the bleeding and swelling are most likely a direct result of radiation.


They took some samples of Jack's fluid from his shunt and his spine to help determine:

#1... the concentration of blood in those fluids,
#2... if there are any infections, and
#3... to make sure there are no other suspicious cells in those areas.

We won't find those results out until tomorrow or Thursday, but they could tell right away there was blood in both fluids, which they have told us is a result of the swelling.  We are praying the tests come back with only blood in the fluid, as they are already taking great measures to get his blood to healthy levels so it will start to clot.

This has been a really hard couple of days, but we have been surrounded by not only our amazing family and friends, but other families with children in ICU who have been incredibly supportive and inspiring.  There are so many prayers flying around in this hospital - it's AWESOME!

We are taking things one day at a time (as suggested last night by Dr. Claire), and I will do my best to update daily until we are out of ICU.

We love you all, thanks for continued thoughts and support!
April