Kevin in the Hospital

February 2, 2008 @ 9 pm

Kevin is doing well. He's speaking and wants to eat, but mostly he's sleeping. In the 24 hours since his surgery I'd say he's slept 23 of those hours. Rachel and I stayed with him all last night, but I could hardly stay awake. I'm not much good today, either. Rachel hasn't slept more than 1 hour in that time, but somehow she's still going strong.

I am attaching a picture of Kevin at the present time. He looks pretty much the same whether he is awake or asleep. All of the doctors and nurses are impressed with his progress. He has conversations and recognizes voices (doesn't open his eyes much because he has a little double vision). All his vital signs are strong and he has movement and feeling in all his extremities. We read a lot of books to him which seems to preoccupy his mind and and keep him relaxed. (He has always liked being read to.)

He is beginning to eat solid food again, though we are easing into that slowly. He will have to stop eating tomorrow morning, again, because he will be having a second MRI in the afternoon.

Kevin has a private room and we have decorated it with all sorts of pictures, cards, and posters so that Kevin feels at home as much as possible. His brothers came to visit him today, though both have coughs so we limited their exposure. The most comforting thing for Kevin right now is the trophy he won for coming in third at the Pine Wood Derby that was held today. Even though he couldn't make it to the race, Eric took his brother Scotty and raced the car against the rest of the pack. Eric took video of Kevin's car winning one of the heats. Kevin loves to watch that. I'll attach a picture I took of Kevin's car two days before his surgery.

Mike

February 1, 2008 @ 10 pm

The surgery is over and everything went well, but the neurosurgeon is convinced the tumor is cancerous. We won't know for sure until the results come back on Tuesday from the biopsy of the tumor, but this surgeon has a tremendous amout of experience with this type of brain surgery and he is convinced Kevin will have to undergo chemotherapy. The great news is that the tumor had not spread into the brain tissue. The surgeon was able to scrape off the malignant tissue from the brain tissue. But there is still microscopic malignant tissue remaining that can only be killed with chemo. I still can't believe it. This is crushing news for Kevin who wanted this to be over today. But now it turns out we are only at the beginning. The whole family is here to support each other. I'm a wreck.

Mike

February 1, 2008 @ 4:30 pm

We are Children's Hospital in Detroit. Kevin went into surgery at roughly 2 pm. The surgery is expected to last 6 hours. So far everything is going well (we just got an update about 2 hours in).

Kevin has a golf-ball sized tumor in the back of his head. We don't know if it's grown into his brain tissue or not. We don't know if it's malignant or not. We won't know that until 3-4 days after the surgery. We are hoping that it can be removed without any loss of brain tissue. That part of the brain is linked to fine motor skills. Now that we know about this tumor, is explains a lot about Kevin this past year. It explains not only the headaches, but also his trouble with fine motor skills and even the mysterious, spontaneous vomiting spells he's had over the past year.

Mom, Dad, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends are all here hanging out in the 2nd floor lounge area. We also have a room at the Ronald McDonald house. We don't know how long Kevin will stay here, but right now we are assuming weeks.

Rachel is doing well today ... much better than yesterday when we found out about all this. But she--like Kevin's father Eric--is not sleeping or eating much.

Many people are asking about Scotty and Jake. Scotty is staying with friends and only knows that Kevin is in the hospital. Jake is at home with family and friends.

Mike