The doctor stopped by today and had a word with us regarding Asher's MRI scans pre and post surgery. There were two bits of surprising information, one that took ME by surprise.

It appears that there might be some spreading afterall into the spinal area. We won't know for sure until the Cytology is done in the middle of next week. They will be able to tell based on the fluid that they took out this past monday when we came into the hospital.

Also, they didn't get 100% of it out of the brain. Based on the remaining size (5mmx5mm) of he tumor left in there, most doctors might consider it a complete resection, but we'll be awaiting word from the oncologist and other neurologists prior to declaring victory. They most likely will not be going in for a third brain surgery, but will attack this remaining bit with radiation and chemo.

That part of the treatment appears to be about 3 weeks away, depending on how he heals up from the surgery. What they don't want to do is start him on the chemo too soon because they are going to be doing a follow-up Brain MRI on Monday (Once things settle a bit in his brain) to see more.

I haven't personally seen the MRI yet, so I don't know what they are talking about, but Dr. Manwaring made it sound hopeful, but deferred to his collegues (in my interpretation) in his talking to us on it.

We had heard about the "we missed a bit" part this morning and then, hearing it from the surgical RN, wasn't too worrysome to me.

Hearing about the "I think I mentioned it before, that we saw some whiteness in his lower spinal area" but we're not too sure, kinda worried me a bit. If it was bad, I feel that they would have sat us down and been straightforward with it, so that makes me feel better, but the way in that he said it, was sorta like he half-mentioned it.

Anyway, we have some more waiting to go through now to see how we are going to do treatment going forward.

IF it has spread down his spine, it means much more extensive chemo and radiation. If it hasn't, that would be the BEST case so that we can focus on the small bit left in his brain area.