Back in the Hospital

Daniel had his follow-up with the neurosurgeon yesterday and there was some good news and some concern. Let me get to the concern first.

Since Daniel had his staples removed and came home, there's been some drainage in the center of his incision. This has progressively gotten worse, though it was clear, only slightly pink, without odor, and we figured it would stop. By yesterday it hadn't stopped, so the doctor was concerned. He admitted Daniel so they could do an MRI, which didn't occur until 12:30 this morning. The results show no drainage from the spinal cord and the tests of the fluid show no infection. Still, the doc is going to have an infection specialist look at him, have his dressings changed every six hours, and keep him in the hospital for 3 or 4 days. The good part is they'll get this taken care of. The bad news is that Daniel is going to be going stark raving mad in the hospital again.

The good news, actually great news, is the pathology report. The report (read it yourself, below) says the tumor is non-malignant and fairly rare. Once again, we would have rather been something common, ordinary, run of the mill, routinely treated. Oh well. Instead, it was a ganglioglioma. I did some web search and found at least one site that gave some decent information. Things that echoed what the neurosurgeon told us include:

"Most gangliogliomas are non aggressive, and most patients present with long-standing progressive symptoms." Daniel's symptoms certainly came on slowly.

"Gross total removal is the best chance for a cure." That's what we did.

"Most gangliogliomas are observed in patients younger than 30 years." Interesting.

"Recurrence is rare following gross total resection of the tumor. Radiation treatment is not indicated following gross total resection. Complete tumor resection is generally curative. Metastatic spread is extremely rare. Only a few reported cases describe benign gangliogliomas progressing to malignant gliomas." Ahhhhh, can breathe easier. Yes, Daniel will continue to struggle with therapy as he recovers, but it looks like it should not recur.

As to Therapy, that's a mixed message. Daniel's working it really hard, but in the past week he's regressed. This caused some real frustration and fear over the weekend. We then realized that they've been cutting back his steroids and ended them on Thursday. The therapist and doctor confirmed that Daniel hasn't regressed, it's just that his body is on its own now instead of being crutched by the steroids. With the serious side effects of the steroids, the doc does not want him back using them.

That should bring everyone back up to date. It sounds like Daniel will be in the hospital (Norton Audubon, again) until Friday and he always loves getting visitors - especially those that bring chocolate!