Hospital Round 2

In my last post, I was peeling back the layers to help others understand what living a life impacted by a brain tumor looks like.  This is really just a continuation of that post as we live out each day.

After our trip to the ER on Mother's Day because of Jonah's low sodium, he spent the next couple days lost in his own world with lower sodium levels than expected.  The way those days played out earned him a trip back downtown to get things figured out.

We have officially moved beyond the science of medicine into the art of medicine side.  We have a couple of working theories, but the punchline seems to be that the parainfluenza from a few weeks ago significantly disrupted Jonah's neurological and endocrine systems and that as he was recovering he got pink eye, which set both recoveries back.  This is what it is to live with the impacts of a brain tumor - the neurological damage has set Jonah up such that a viral infection and a case of pink eye can result in 2 weeks of a hospital stay.  

The good news is that we've got a hypothesis and a plan, the bad news is that we're expecting a recovery in terms of weeks and there are no guarantees that a future infection won't set this all off again.  

More research for brain tumors that promote treatment that cause less damage - that's why awareness matters.  Living through the treatment doesn't mean that journey ends.

A fun part of the hospital is that sometimes famous people come to visit.  This time, Jace Fry, a White Sox pitcher came to visit.  They talked about Red Sox, Boston and dogs in a sweet visit.

Just a boy looking for a snack.  This picture is a huge throwback to the day Jonah had his tumor removed.  That day, he wasn't allowed to eat, but insisted on window shopping at this same vending machine dreaming about the snacks he'd get to eat after surgery.  Of course, he came out of surgery on a ventilator and didn't eat anything for over 6 weeks.  At least this visit I was able to buy him the oreos for immediate consumption.

Those who know Jonah are not surprised that dog therapy was a big motivator for him.  Unfortunately, with his altered state, by the time we got there he wasn't really tracking with what was going on around him.  At least we got a couple of pictures.