Star Date

Star Date February 5th 2011…
Justin came up yesterday to be with me for the Oncology consult. I was anxious about this because I was sure Neurology and Oncology had finally worked together and figured something out with Tucker. I was so grateful to have Justin up here because; quite frankly I just don’t seem to know with Tucker what’s around the next corner. Just as soon as I think I know something- I’m wrong. Well on Fridays up here all of the Oncologist get together for a weekly meeting where they present special, harder cases in front of all the Oncologist and then they all have a chance to chime in with opinions and “hey, did you think about this, did you try that?”.
I mean, just sit back for a second and think of the comfort that this brings!! All of these absolutely brilliant Oncologists gathered together in one room- all discussing Tucker. I mean, WOW. Very awesome. It’s like in Star Trek when all the Captain’s and Admirals would work together to solve the problem of those Romulan!! Because of this meeting we didn’t meet up with Dr Yaish (the Oncologist covering Tucker’s case for this week) until later that afternoon. So when Dr. Yaish (who is working very close with Dr. Affife) entered our room I was very excited to hear what all the big brains decided to do with Tucker. Apparently they had a very big discussion about Tucker and a lot of great points were made. Dr Yaish who is an old doctor (I think of him like an Admiral on Star Trek) and has worked around the world (or many “planets”—HA!) with cancer kids, said to me “Tuckers case is weird, weird, weird.” He went on to tell me about the great lengths at which they discussed Tucker and this situation. A lot of it comes right down to we still in all our great medical advancements, so much we don’t know about the brain. The reason why we have had such an overwhelming presents of doctors up here to see Tucker is because this is “weird” and (if I understood him correctly) no cases have been reported of a leukemia relapse in the central nervous system with one half of the cerebellum swollen. I’m like….ummm… well, jeepers that’s just great… (please tell me you sense my sarcastic tone?). The last thing I want is for my child to be the “first” to go into uncharted territories.. Hello, this is not Star Trek, I don’t want to go where no man has gone before- no thank you- can’t we just stay within our solar system?? *sigh* But this is Tucker we are talking about and he will make his own path. Maybe that’s why this is all happening to him? Maybe he needs to do this so the doctors will learn from him and in turn this will help another child in the future?
Anyways, I digress- what was decided upon was the brain swelling has nothing to do with the chemo Methotrexate (sp?) (Neurology disagrees- but whatever-nobody cares about the Ferengi- LOL)… and that he most likely just has a virus in that part of his tissue. The only treatment is a medicine that he is already on, the Dethamexazone… a very powerful steroid that is designed to work in the spinal fluid and brain. So Tucker’s already getting very high doses of that. Now its time to just sit and wait for the medicine to start working, I asked the doctor about the possibility of going home, and he chuckled a little- my first thought was AH CRAP, I MADE THE DOCTOR LAUGH AT A SERIOUS QUESTION! Maybe I should have asked my question in a different form- maybe I should have worded more like “Admiral Dr, Yaish, of the Federation, when can we return to our home planet?”…. He said Tucker is not going anywhere until we can confirm that his brain is getting better, not worse. He asked me, could I imagine if I took Tucker home and his brain swelling got bigger, not smaller? It’s a very dangerous situation. Tucker has to remain at the hospital until he gets another MRI that confirms his brain swelling has gone down. Maybe by the end of this week. Maybe they can find a time warp worm hole that we can jump in and just skip to the end when he’s 13 and cancer free? If anybody knows Star Trek you all know how dangerous worm holes are- *sigh* I guess we will just stick with the long shuttle ride.
Radiology has checked in a few times with Tucker- they are like the Tactical Officer on Star Trek- Great to have around and will be needed eventually, but not in this episode. They just want to check in to make sure I know they are still a part of the crew and they are all working together on this mission.

Cancer: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the star ship TUCKER’S CANCER. Its continuing mission: To seek out and continue Tucker’s life. To explore strange new problems of the brain, to boldly go where no child has, should, or ever want to go.

Love you all, Amber