Andy & Jessica

Later this month Jude will have another of his every 4-month MRIs. I’m already feeling anxious about it. About this time after the 1st surgery, the regrowth became visible on the MRI, although the providers thought it was probably just inflammation/scar tissue. So, anything bright on the scan will have me feeling panicked. Hopefully he is cured and it is clear.

He also has an EEG scheduled. Jude had one of those before. He has to do it sleep deprived (I think he and I stayed up all night with him the other time baking and eating a cake). Then they try to induce a seizure by having him stare at pinwheels and crazy lights, while connected to all these electrodes. If he passes and doesn’t have a seizure, he’ll be able to start get weaned off the anti-seizure medication. Andy and I hate that medicine now more than Jude does since it really does make him irritable. We are eager to see what our newly 6 year old Jude is really like when he’s not drugged up.

Jude has healed amazingly well after the big accident. I had been following the orders of the ER to keep his face covered with antibacterial ointment 24×7 until the skin started to re-grow and that was right on. I brought him to a dermatologist who said that if we keep it moist with that ointment since it was a “dirty” wound (or Vaseline if it is not a dirty wound), the skin will not scab over and then it will be much less likely to scar. Jude’s skin is re-growing and healing beautifully and now there is just a couple inch spot on his temple to go. It is such a turn around from even a week ago when I thought he was going to be 1/2 scar face. God is good — how cool that our bodies can heal themselves. But, as Jude pointed out, if he lost his arm that would not grow back like a crab’s would.

When we were talking about Abraham Lincoln and I told him that he was an attorney like mommy, Jude said, “I thought that attorneys were only girls.”

Jude had the opportunity to go snow tubing for the first time ever through HopeKids last night. He was supposed to go last week, but it was postponed due to too much snow. I had been snow tubing a couple times as a kid and have always thought that it is the best fun. Andy had never gone so he got to go and I got to stay home with the little ones.  Jude knew how badly I wanted to go so he even wrote me a card that said, “Love Mom” with a bunch of hearts on it and gave it to me right before he left to make me feel better, he said.  After no time, I got a call that Jude got injured on his first run down the hill while traveling about 35 miles when his tube (which was attached to Andy’s separate tube) hit the ramped up side of his lane and flipped over and he was thrown off. He was screaming at the first aid station at the time (6:45 p.m.) and Andy decided he needed to go to the ER. Levi, Asher and I met them there. I was horrified when I saw Jude’s bloody, swollen face. A nurse told me I needed to “calm down,” although under the circumstances I was very calm indeed.  He looked like a bloody monster. His left ear was swollen to at least 2 times the normal size; his left eye and left side of his face were all swollen and the worst part was that his forehead and left side of his face was missing the top layers of skin. Awful, awful, awful. We were at the ER from 7:30 p.m. or so until the very early morning today. The good news is that Jude’s head injury wasn’t as bad as it could have been. (He was a star staying still during the 2 minute CT scan.) But, the bad news is that he may end up with a bunch more facial scars and the poor kid has enough scars from everything he has been through. When we got home, Jude was shocked and horrified when he saw his reflection in the mirror. I feel so bad for him. I just wanted him to have the best time ever and it clearly was the worst time.

As many of you know, Andy hosts a monthy theological podcast through his ministry, Echo Zoe Ministries. His podcast focus on him interviewing guests on various theological topics. However, the tables are turning. This Friday evening Andy will be on Twin Cities News Talk (AM 1130) during “The Late Debate” to talk about Legislating Morality, and playing their game show “That’s News to Me.” It’s on from 8:00-10:00 PM. If you’re outside the broadcast area, you can listen online or via the iHeart app. I’m sure he’ll do great!

Update: You can listen now. Hour 1 | Hour 2

It’s been a little over 6 months since Jude finished his brain radiation. In spite of 2 brain surgeries and brain radiation, he is doing really well.  He’s just a month away from his 6th birthday.  I would have never guessed on the day we learned he had a brain tumor at age 3 that he would ever celebrate his 6th birthday.  And, I certainly never would have guessed he’d be thriving.

• He continues to excel academically and is on pace to finish 1st grade Math, Language Arts, Phonics and Spelling, along with Kindergarten History.
• His hair has mostly come back, but the 6 inch x 3/4 inch scar across his head from the 2 surgeries is and will stay bald. There is also a mostly bald patch where he must have gotten the biggest dose of radiation. I’m not sure if that will fill in at some point.
• He complains about occasional double vision, which they think is neurological, not optical, I believe. Not sure what that really means. But, I think it means that it may correct itself and he’s supposed to wear an eye patch to strengthen the weakened muscle of the bad eye when it acts up.
• Jude also had some short term memory impairment from the radiation and he is enrolled in a music therapy program to attempt to correct that. He enjoys his “music classes” as I call them. No need for him to know he has a memory problem.
• I enrolled him in karate to combat a doctor’s prediction that after brain radiation he “wouldn’t be the best athlete or the most coordinated person.”  He certainly isn’t a stand out, but I firmly believe that if he sticks with it, he could be.
• He is still on anti-seizure medication.  One of the main side effects is “irritability.”  It makes him wilder than he already is.  If the MRI next month shows no evidence of disease then we will do some testing where they will try to induce a seizure and if he doesn’t have one, we’ll be able to start weaning him off the medicaiton.  That would be great since often I wonder who the real Jude is.  When he is mean or crazy, I wonder if that is who my little boy is or if it’s the medicine that is taking hold of him.

“There are billions of people in the world and none of them were by me.” (Jude is my most high maintenance boy and unless I’m like a cruise ship director and keep him constantly entertained and hopping from one activity to the next, he gets bored.)

“I love God more than candy.” (He said while I was reminding him of the reason we celebrate Easter.  And, trust me, coming from Jude that is saying A LOT since he really loves his candy.)

1. A judge;

2. The President of the United States; or

3. An “army guy”

He said, “I’m going to get one of those jobs probably because 3 jobs is a lot of jobs.”