brother update
Mar. 29th, 2012 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackiekjonoWell, as of last Friday, my brother, Carl is out of the hospital. His biopsy was negative so no cancer. The odd tissue around his cyst did turn out to be a type of fast growing tumor tissue so they decided to put a shunt in his head and he is a bit lumpy now.
I suspect he will be wearing a lot of hats in the forseeable future. Still, my aunt has a friend who had to have a shunt put in 30 years ago to drain spinal fluid from her head and she had to have a really smelly bag attached to her wheelchair at all times. All in all, I would say a lumpy head is an improvement in the technology.
They sent him home with a large bag of medications that he will probably be on forever - though it is not impossible that his pituitary gland could heal up and they could take him off some of them eventually.
The most serious health problem he is facing right now is that his pituitary gland is no longer producing the hormone that tells you to stop peeing so that you don't become horribly dehydrated and die. It's funny how we take that sort of thing for granted. He has a nasal spray that he uses once a day that replaces that hormone. We have to watch him carefully to make sure his eyes aren't sinking back into his head and keep lots of Gatorade around.
My brother Pete has to take Gatorade with his MS medication, too. My mother feels like she is drowning in Gatorade.
I suspect he will be wearing a lot of hats in the forseeable future. Still, my aunt has a friend who had to have a shunt put in 30 years ago to drain spinal fluid from her head and she had to have a really smelly bag attached to her wheelchair at all times. All in all, I would say a lumpy head is an improvement in the technology.
They sent him home with a large bag of medications that he will probably be on forever - though it is not impossible that his pituitary gland could heal up and they could take him off some of them eventually.
The most serious health problem he is facing right now is that his pituitary gland is no longer producing the hormone that tells you to stop peeing so that you don't become horribly dehydrated and die. It's funny how we take that sort of thing for granted. He has a nasal spray that he uses once a day that replaces that hormone. We have to watch him carefully to make sure his eyes aren't sinking back into his head and keep lots of Gatorade around.
My brother Pete has to take Gatorade with his MS medication, too. My mother feels like she is drowning in Gatorade.
