Next steps

It’s been 2 and a half weeks since jeff came to Edmonton and was admitted to the hospital. Every day he gets stronger and every day the doctors do their rounds coming to tell us of the new test they thought to do because maybe this could be some obscure medical condition no one thought to test for before. Every day they come back to tell us the results were negative and they still have no answers for us. The seizure Jeff had at the beginning of his admission into the hospital was his lowest point here. He was unable to move his right side and would only wake when the doctors woke him for more assessments. He was given a tube from his nose to his stomach since he was at high risk for aspiration and he was closely monitored. Since the seizure, Jeff has regained streangth on this right side, he’s been able to walk with a walker 200 meters and they even tried a few steps without the walker today. He has been awake during the day reading National Geographic and playing games on his IPad. Jeffs mom and I have been taking turns being here at the hospital and being at home with the boys and every time I come back to see him, he is stronger and more alert. Jeff is still unable to eat since the last swallow test showed a delay in the process of swallowing with still keeps him at high risk for aspiration. He will have another swallow test early next week which will determine the next steps. If he passes, he will be gradually introduced to foods again and if he fails, he will be given a peg tube and get nutrients through that which is a tube in his abdomen going into his stomach. The last diagnostic test the doctors could think of is a PET scan. This will show any malignancies in his body that could support the neurologists differential diagnosis. At this point the neurologist is the only one to come up with a differential and he concluded this could be one of 2 things. This could be a delayed effect of the radiation Jeff received when he was having cancer treatments or this could be a paraneoplastic syndrome which is basically the body creating antibodies against a current malignancy and those antibodies are attacking not only the malignancy but also healthy central nervous system cells. Both of these conclusions would explain Jeff’s symptoms and both are equally as scary. We could be looking at a new baseline for Jeff. Looking too far into the future only brings anxiety and grief so our next step is to think about today.