Preliminary Pathology Report

The preliminary finding of the pathology report is that Tim has vasculitis, or swelling of the blood vessels in his brain. Unfortunately, vasculitis has many different causes and the treatments vary according to the suspected cause. The current suspects are 1) the leukemia, 2) a bacterial, viral or fungal infection in the brain, 3) a reaction to his medication or 4) a completely unrelated disease that causes vasculitis. The doctors are conducting additional blood tests, tests on the biopsy tissue and possibly additional CT scans to try to pinpoint the cause. In the meantime, they have put Tim on IV anti-viral medication just in case.

Tim has slept a good part of the day. The biopsy site continues to be painful. We've been told that by Friday most pain related to the biopsy should diminish. In the meantime, Tim has a spectacular black eye as fluid from the swelling around the biopsy site drains through his face.

Beata came and sat with Tim this evening and Jen and Julian watched the kids, so my mom and I went to see Sunshine Cleaning. It wasn't depressing, it wasn't uplifting, but I enjoyed it. Thanks, everybody.

Thanks also to Mary and Maureen for lending and fetching a book for me, to Pat for lunch and to Steve and Cecilia for the box of goodies.

Thanks, Fran for the cards. I haven't had the energy to go through them, yet.

If I missed thanking you, I apologize. I'm getting plenty of sleep, but I'm pretty emotionally exhausted at this point. If it's not urgent, I don't do it. If someone else can do it, I don't do it. Sometimes, I don't even do the necessary. I did get donuts for Brendan this morning, but that's special.