The last two days have been good in Jackson's progression, with the exception of one little setback. The doctors removed the drain on the top of Jack's head. They also removed the "bolt" that measures the pressure in the brain. They removed both of these yesterday morning. The pressure in his head seemed to be doing well until the MRI today showed us that the ventricle that naturally drains the fluid in his brain is still swollen and is not draining fluid properly. So in the last day or so the fluid is building around the surgical site just below the scalp. They now need to place a VP shunt to allow the fluid to pass out of the brain and down to the abdomen. If they do not do the shunt the pressure will build again making Jackson very uncomfortable and very sick. The plan is to do the shunt Friday morning. It is a 1 hour surgical procedure. The good news from the MRI is that there does not appear to be any stroke or permanent damage to his cerebellum from the surgery or the excessive pressure they had to relieve after surgery with a second emergency surgery. They were not able to see very clearly how much tumor was left behind because they packed the tumor site with a material called gel foam that is naturally absorbed by the body. Jack has been on steroids since surgery which slows the healing time and also slows the absorption on the gel foam making it unclear which is tumor and which is foam. Jackson's oncologist doesn't seem to be so concerned with how much of the tumor is left and he doesn't feel that will hinder the outcome of his treatment.

Jackson is having trouble verbalizing his word right now so he often gets frustrated. This was a side effect that they informed us of and they do expect he will regain his abilities in time. Jackson will be meeting with speech pathologists, physical therapists, and neuropychologists before he gets home. Overall, Jackson is getting better day by day. He has been more comfortable the last two days with his surgical site. He has also lost almost all of his excess water weight and edema from his surgery and renal failure. His kidneys are now doing the job that they were designed to do. He is off all of his IV meds. He now only takes a few meds through his feeding tube.

Last night was the first time in over two weeks that we were able to see Jackson smile. I told him a funny story about how his two year old sister Hayden ended up on an elevator with the help of her three year old cousin Gavin. My sister in law and I were only a few seconds behind them. We came around the corner just in time to see the elevator door closing and Gavin standing there having had been the one to push the button to let her in. My sister in law Megan pushed the button quickly in hopes of catching her in time and sure enough, the doors opened and there was Hayden. You can only imagine my initial panic and then instant relief to still see her in the elevator. I told this story to Jackson, he began to laugh slightly and quickly quit because it seemed to hurt his head.

Just one more thought, thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Thank you Garrison for all of your hard work! We appreciate everything that everyone has done for our family.

Jenise