why do i only post bad news...
at work the other night i got the second worst call a person can receive: my 9 year old nephew has brain cancer.
he was actually diagnosed with brain cancer about 1.5 years ago. the cancer is surrounding his pituitary gland (which controls all the hormones in the body and is responsible for growth). because of the location of the cancer, they could not go in and take it all out without damaging the gland. so, they went in through two holes in his head and took out what they could. then they put him on radiation treatment.
the call yesterday was to say that the radiation treatment succeeded and failed. within the last month, he has grown 20+ cysts in his brain; however, the main tumor has collapsed.
in about 2-3 weeks, they are going to have to perform major surgery on him again. they are going to have to go into his brain and remove as many of the cysts as they can. apparently, this is the first time this has ever happened to the doctors' knowledge. they don't know what the possible outcome will be, but obviously any surgery with the brain is major and life threatening. thankfully, the cysts are in the central area of the brain, and they are going to be able to go down through the top of the brain through the center gap between the lobes. as long as everything goes as planned, there won't be collateral damage to the rest of the brain.
so, if you are the praying type, your prayers for my nephew would be greatly appreciated.