Back At UCSF

Hello Everyone,

I hate to report that Jackson was flown up to UCSF on Monday evening. Jackson started feeling yucky on Sunday evening, complaining of a headache and he had thrown up. He went to bed at about 7pm and when he woke up at 5:45 am, he had a fever of 102. I gave him ibuprofen and he went back to sleep. Knowing that he wasn't going to school that day, I let him sleep until it was time to take Madison to school at about 8:15. I planned on taking him to the doctor to get him checked out for an ear or sinus infection because he was having sinus troubles the week before. When I went to wake him and get him dressed, he was really lethargic, crying, and said his head was hurting really bad. He still had a fever even a couple hours after giving him the ibuprofen. This scenario seemed too similar to when he was originally diagnosed last year and he had the fluid pressure on his brain called hydrocephalus. I decided I was going to take him directly to the ER. We went at 9am and went back right away. They started with and IV, blood work, cultures and a CT scan to rule out any problems with his VP shunt in his head. The shunt is what helps his brain drain the fluid properly from his ventricles into his abdomen. I was worried that his shunt wasn't working properly. The CT scan showed that everything was fine with the shunt. They also did a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. His white counts were slightly elevated to indicate that he might be fighting an infection. This whole time he was really out of it and was sleeping alot, only to awake when they were poking him or doing some sort of exam. The whole time the ER doc was working with Jackson's oncologist, Dr. Banerjee from San Francisco. They even did a spinal tap to check for meningitis, because apparently, it is going around in Santa Maria. They had 5 or 6 cases just last week and there was another case down the hall from Jackson's room. They say the spinal was negative for meningitis, but the sample they took was really small. I hope the test was accurate. He has been on antibiotics since Monday night, and he seems to be getting a little better. He is drinking and has ate today, but still is feeling bad and has still has the fever. He has been more coherent when he is awake. With all of that said, they can only determine that he has some sort of infection,viral or bacterial. A week ago Saturday, Jackson and Hayden had a stomach bug that caused them to throw up and feel crummy. The doctors said that for Jackson, something like that could have settled in his brain, which I guess is common and most people's bodies just take care of it on their own. But Jackson, having been through everything that he has, they said the virus could have caused his brain to swell very slightly, and that could also cause the symptoms that he has had. They said in that case that it would resolve on its own.

So, right now, Jackson is on IV antibiotics every 12 hours. They are monitoring him very closely. The resident that was on last night just spoke with me. She said they were very worried about him last night because of the fever and his "altered state". I am glad that these doctors are so proactive about their patients and they don't mess around at all. Among the tests he has had here, they have also done an EKG, 2 EEGs which check for seizures, and they bumped his September 7th MRI up to Thursday. The MRI is much more sensitive than the CT scan, so they can see more, and also make sure the cancer is still far gone. I will post again as soon as I get any more information or it things change. Please keep saying prayers for Jackson. We hope this is just a bump in the road and that it will very soon be in the past. Thank you everyone for the continued support.

By the way, something kind of strange. Last year on August 23rd, Jackson was transported from Children's Hospital in Madera to UCSF. He made the trip again to UCSF, a year later on exactly the same date. Too weird.

Jenise