Spinal Tap on Monday

Monday will be another big day.  Jude has a spinal tap scheduled for bright and early in the morning to ensure the cancer cells didn’t spread to his spine.  I would be surprised if they spread, but it will be a relief nonetheless.  He will be sedated for it.  While he is sedated, I requested that they will remove his sutures.  That will be great since he is sewn up like a football and would be totally traumatized if they removed the sutures while he was awake.  After the spinal tap, Andy and I will meet with Jude’s oncologist.  I gave asked her a number of questions and requested a number of things.  We expect to get some information that will be very critical in deciding whether to pursue proton radiation treatment, which we’ve been told is the “standard of care” in this situation.  However, I suspect that there is really no standard of care in this situation since this situation very well could be a matter of first impression giving the rarity of supratentorial cortical ependymomas and the fact that it is a Grade II rather than Grade III and was fully resected once again.  I bet there is still a really good chance that the resection alone is a cure, as it statistically should have been the first time.  But, do I want to gamble with Jude’s life?  But, really either decision — to radiate or not to radiate — is a gamble.  Brutal.