DECEMBER 4

Today has not been a good day for Gary. He has been having pain behind his right eye for a little over a week now. During Thanksgiving weekend the pain progressively became worse and more frequent. His doctor had already scheduled him to have a MRI of his brain this morning, so Gary waited to say anything to the doctor about it getting worse.

After the MRI, he was scheduled to see a surgeon to talk about the central line that will be put in for the blood harvesting. After talking with the surgeon and the nurse assigned to him by the transplant team, they called in another Lymphoma doctor, since Gary's doctor is away. The results from the MRI had not been put in the system, but the doctor called to ask them to rush and give us an initial reading.

He explained that there is a large nerve that runs along side your face (see photo below) and the initial look at the MRI shows "something". Right now, they do not know if it is the Lymphoma showing up in this nerve or something else, so they are postponing further preparation for the blood harvesting until they can run some more test. They also have called in a neurological oncologist to see him in the morning.

Because his pain is not manageable at home, they admitted him to the hospital so they can control it better. They also did another lumbar puncture tonight. We will know more after the test are all in tomorrow.

This is a disappointed to say the least. Please pray that Gary will get relief from the pain and whatever this new development is, it will be something that can be treated.