Out of the Hospital!

As I wrote
yesterday, my 16-year-old son spent the last few days in
Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH)
in Palo Alto, California, for brain biopsy surgery and recovery. We are delighted that Paul got to go home today! He ate some breakfast and a red
apple, walked most of the way up a hallway and back, and practiced going up
and down stairs with two physical therapists before being discharged. Paul
has been brave and patient with this whole scary experience and we are
very proud of him.

We are less happy not to know what is causing his sudden, severe, and constant
headaches. Paul continues to take strong prescription painkillers. He is
frequently nauseous and sees double sometimes but the nurse said those
symptoms will go away
as he recovers from surgery. Despite all of the adventures and excitement of
the past few days, we are still trying to figure out a solution to the original
problem. There are many test results still to come in. Early reports say
that the lesions
(abnormal tissue) in his brain are not malignant
cancer or an infection (hooray!). However, we do not even know if
the lesions are causing Paul’s headaches or just an unrelated thing he was
born with. We may not know for weeks. Once all of the
pathology (study
and diagnosis) is complete, if Pediatric
Neurosurgery
cannot resolve this, we will probably move on to Pediatric
Neurology.

Paul goes back to High School after the President’s Day holiday. Until
then, our job is to help him recover fully from surgery, grow strong again,
cope with the pain, and pray.