Procedures for Brady tomorrow

From our CaringBridge site:

Met with Dr. Murray, the oncologist, and his entourage today. He thought Brady looked really good and behaving like a 4 year old should be - silly, making jokes and trying to capture everyone's attention! We talked about procedures for tomorrow and what we can expect to happen if all the tests come back as expected.
Tomorrow morning we will arrive at Cook Children's registration at 5:30 a.m. - YES THAT EARLY - to register Brady for (1) port placement, (2) quick MRI, (3) lumbar puncture and (4) labs. The procedures actually start at 7:30 a.m., first on his surgeon's schedule, and should be finished around 11:30 a.m. or so. He will be completely under for all of this so he won't feel a thing. Dr. Murray said that the port placement will probably feel like he's been kicked in the shoulder so they will prescribe something for pain management, but the lumbar puncture he shouldn't even feel. Dr. Murray said that they will be at the lower end of the spinal column for the puncture so as not to damage any nerve endings and will be taking about 2 tsp of CSF (cerebrospinal fluid).

After the port placement the quick MRI will take place. Dr. Roberts (neurosurgeon) will immediatly read the quick MRI to make sure there is no collection of CSF in the cavity where the tumor was resected from so we can proceed from there. Once the "go-ahead" comes from Dr. Roberts, then Dr. Murray can do the lumbar puncture. [He is doing the lumbar puncture to make sure there are no cancerous cells in the CSF. If there are, then we have to regroup and take a different course entirely with treatment. Basically this will mean that Brady won't be eligible for the clinical trial that includes a shot at chemotherapy paired with the radiation. Also, it may mean that this cancer has matastisized to another location in his body.] All the docs feel very good that they will find no cancer cells in the CSF but they have to be 100% positive before we can move on with treatment. Finally blood will be drawn for various labs that have to be done for the trial.

We will have results late Tuesday or early Wednesday as to how the CSF looks and when we will take Brady for his first radiation treatment. If all goes well then we could be looking at next Monday! It's late and I have to be up at 4:30 a.m. so I will update more tomorrow. Good night!