Josh Update

Got a call from Josh this afternoon that he was admitted to the hospital today (St Joseph's Phoenix) due to the results of a MRI he had on Friday. Apparently, the scan shows critical swelling and pressure on his brain. This would explain the worsening motor function in his arm, and his speech is definitely worse. He essentially has aphasia where he knows what he wants to say, but just can't get it out.

To educate you, swelling in the brain is bad because it is inside a closed compartment, and when it swells, it essentially crushes itself to death. From what I can understand talking to Josh, the MRI showed a lot of necrosis, or dead tissue where the tumor was. This is likely from his recent radiation treatment. Apparently, this area of necrosis is causing the swelling that is crushing the rest of the brain.

Surgery to remove the necrotic tumor (and any other tumor seen and removable) is planned for Monday, so please be in prayer. I can tell you that the most difficult surgical cases are always re-operative one's. The tissue is scarred and anatomic landmarks are obscured. This will not be easy for his surgeon. The balancing act is that they want to remove as much bad stuff as possible, without further injuring the compromised areas of Josh's brain affecting speech and motor function. It is totally conceivable though that he could wake up paralyzed on the right and unable to speak.

I found this info online:

Radiation Necrosis

Radiosurgery turns a live tumor into a dead tumor (radiation necrosis). The dead tissue must then be carted away from the brain by an inflammatory reaction. The bigger the mass of dead tissue the greater the inflammation which can make the patient sicker and dependent on high doses of steroids in attempts to keep the swelling under control. This usually takes place between 6 and 18 months after the radiosurgical procedure. Sometimes patients require open surgery to remove this mass of dead tissue because the mass of the dead tumor plus the mass of the surrounding edema (swelling) is causing an elevation of intracranial pressure and/or neurologic deficit.

Josh has a large tumor, that means more inflammation, so this is probably exactly what he and his doctors are dealing with.

I also found this site very informative for the more medically inclined.