Date sent:11/13/99 07:48 PM
NPO after midnight....

Which roughly translates "nothing by mouth after midnight..." until after the "procedure." Sigh.

The latest curiosity is that the cyst did not drain the last two times (0 ml Wed, 10 ml Fri, but flushed w/ 10 ml Fri and couldn't draw again...) but it still shows up as mass on the CT scan. Soooooooo, that means, either the cyst is almost better, and the inside is thick and gelatinous and won't come out through the catheter, OR the fluid is really thick and is clogging the little holes in the bottom of the catheter.

The plan is to take out the catheter, and drain as much from the cyst as possible. If what they take out is gelatinous, looks-like-the-infection-is-gone kind of stuff, they will leave the catheter out, seal him up and send him home in just a few days. If what they take out is still puss-blood-thick-gunky kind of stuff, they will put in a new catheter in and continue to watch. That means "probably more than 3 days and less than 10 days."

This procedure is done in the operating room, with local anesthetic. They will just make a small incision, not reopen the whole big flap as before. (Today's base joke: We now have a new definition for "male pattern baldness."**)

I asked Dan if he was comfortable with this plan. He said yes, because he feels stuck at the moment. The current plan had come to a dead end. As frustrating as it is to have another procedure ("having it in the operating room makes it a bigger deal...") it does feel like a step forward in recovering from this phase.

FYI: We spoke to a few people on the phone yesterday and the night before and mentioned Dan is having headaches. Dr. Black said that these were probably due to Ravi adding the 10 cc of saline back into the cyst yesterday. Not only does it exert a little pressure, the saline then seeps out into the brain cavity and adds a little pressure there as well.

Dan says that I have said nothing about our spirits or about the children. Actually, I don't know quite what to say about either topic.

Before Dr. Black's arrival this evening, we were laying in his bed talking about an imaginary "worry-meter." "How worried should we be about this?" Does it even help to have an answer to that question? My response, only helps in planning, does't help emotionally, because the worry meter can cause emotional "reflux". Dan's response was, for information in general, needs to be filtered through wisdom to know how worried to be about something. But, wisdom can sometimes filter out important information.

As for the kids... what can I say? We miss them, Dan particularly, since I have seen them more recently. We worry about the effect of "the long haul" on their spirits, even though we know they are being extremely well cared for. We wish they didn't have to demonstrate the kind of strength and endurance they have been forced to call upon, but are extremely proud that they have risen to the challenge. We sent them toys for no reason the other day.

Well, thanks again for hanging in there with us. We will let you know more as we know more. And continue as always,

With Love and Appreciation,

Abi and Dan

** This is a visual joke of course, so you might not get it if you haven't seen Dan throughout this.... For the first surgery, they shaved the top of Dan's head, from ear to ear and all forward, so that the back of his head had hair. This layer was coming back in well when we had to come back for the second surgery, where they shaved out an area just a little larger than the incision flap. At the same time, they had to shave out little circles in key locations for the markers I described (reinforcements)... That was two weeks ago, and even these areas have grown in quite a bit. Two nights ago the resident Ravi shaved a small circle so that he could drain the cyst. And, tomorrow, I am sure they will shave a new site... hence "pattern baldness..." He has already decided that he will probably just get his whole head shaved again so to even it all out, when this is all over.

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