Question and Answers..Part Six

Janet asked..Is Philip home yet?

Philip is home and working on healing. He has had some rough days but he also has days where he seems like he is getting stronger.

He did have a seizure on July 4th that was scary. I will never get use to the idea that he has these. They are so scary...

Philip has been to U of M and we are waiting on him to finish healing to move forward. The type of testing he needs can be dangerous to the new machine he has. So we are working that out.

He will have a vascular mapping to look at the area of the mass in the brain stem.

Andrea asked...where is Philip's mass at?

Andrea here is a picture of the brain and where the mass is. As you can see there is a while line in the middle. That is a piece of the old shunt that they can not get out. They did try but there is just so much damage and it is in the deepest area of the brain..against the brain stem. The DR all say the same thing..it is in the worse place possible. Or wow that is such a tricky place. And on and on. I can say without a doubt I hate the mass. It has been a problem from his first brain operation at 6 weeks old. Then again at 6 months old. What a shock that it has come back.


Joyce asked..what is the plan for Philip?

To be honest I do not know. And that drives me crazy. Keeps me up at night and keeps my mind crazy with what ifs. That is the honest truth.

I do know he will go back to U of M and do some serious testing...and some of it is going to be life changing. Decisions are going to need to be made and I just do not know what the right answers should be. My security in my ability to know what is right left when Philip had his stroke...time has not healed that.
Philip will then need to go to NY Sloan. We are working out the details .

We have been told that the suergons here are not the best choice to do surgery on Philip. Hard to hear but deep down my heart told me that already.