A cockatoo called Horse

Yesterday, The Boy, The Man and I went to the hospital to have The Meeting. We thought we were going to meet with the oncologist and the neurosurgeon, but it ended up just being the oncologist. Most of our questions and concerns are actually neurosurgery-related, but The Man seemed happier to have been present anyway. I actually felt a little bit annoyed that the onco went through the scan in a lot more detail with The Man (well, I looked, too) than he showed me on my own the other week. I do understand that we were under a lot more pressure that day, and that he was trying to show me quickly so we could get on with the discussion, and that The Man seemed to be requiring more justification, but it just proves how little I stood my ground and just accepted their decision.

The onco still insists that the tumour wasn’t completely blocking the CSF flow before, and that now the cyst is. He thinks the shunt was working on the old setting because there was still flow through the right spot, but that now it was under more strain; also that The Boy was asymptomatic only because the fluid build-up hadn’t become too major yet (keeping in mind that this development has happened sometime over the last six months, and probably not suddenly). He still believes that a shunt reset is simply buying time, and that the cyst fenestration is necessary. Obviously it’s not as emergent as they originally made it sound, because they’re not in a terribly big hurry to get us back in there. Even if the MRI department is having a busy week, they would fit in an emergency.

So anyway, there is now a new MRI request in the works, destined for sometime during the first half of November (to be confirmed when we receive the letter, hopefully with more than an hour’s notice this time!)

Apparently The Man asked too many questions (in The Boy’s opinion). The Quote of the Day (after we had left the building) was something like “Dad, if I ever take you to the hospital with me again, please don’t embarrass me like that!!!” I’m not sure that it can really be avoided, but it was a funny moment.

The Boy himself is doing really well. The last headache was on Saturday morning during the cricket game. It was a mild one, and it was a really hot morning. Standing out in the sun for three hours is enough to give anybody a headache, so I can’t blame anything sinister on this one at this stage.

We’re doing OK. The weekend was good, and so far this week is going a lot more smoothly than last week. Thank you for your continued support, and especially for the messages. We appreciate all of them.

Our new game plan is trying to get as many raw, organic green things into The Boy as we can, increasing his pH (we are all trying to maintain a better level of alkalinity). He’s being more thoughtful about what he chooses to eat, but Green Smoothie iceblocks are our best weapon for that right now. Fortunately for The Brother, he will eat (or at least try) almost any green smoothie, fruit and vegetable we show him, but unfortunately for The Boy, he’s still not as enthusiastic. Any other suggestions for gently enticing a kid to happily consume more raw greens and veg without covering them in cheese or flavourings (we’re also trying to avoid dairy, gluten/wheat/most grains, refined sugars, artificial additives etc) would be most welcome. He’s being picky about green smoothies now, too, so anybody with green smoothie vs fussy child experience that has fun and foolproof recipes, feel free to let me know!!!