A Surgery Date

    As promised, here is the update on Cameron's appt. today. 
   We went up to the University Hospital to meet with a new Doctor.   He's very nice and seemed very knowledgeable about what he was talking about.
  It is for sure a Giant Cell Reparitive Granuloma.  But instead of being in his jaw where they usually are, his is in his temporal bone area of his head.  

 He did some hearing tests, the kind with the tuning forks.  He doesn't feel at this time that Cameron's nerve in his right ear is intact.  He thinks its been damaged too much.  If that's the case, when he does the surgery ~ which will take 4 hours ~ he will just take the tumor and all the ear bones out and seal off his ear canal. So he will be deaf in that ear, but I'm totally ok with that.  Like one of my friends said, at least he can still hear out of the other one and talk.  I'm counting my blessing for sure that all he's losing is his hearing in that ear, it could be so much worse.   If he thinks the nerve is salvageable he'll save what he can and then we'll discuss rehabilating his hearing in that ear at a later date. 

   The whole highlights of Cameron's day was riding in the elevator, which he had never done before, and the cool way they looked into his ears. They had a setup that not only magnified the inside of the ears, but it sent a video image of it to two screens on the walls so we could see what they saw.  He thought that was awesome. Lol 

   The doctor told me that the tumor is affecting the facial nerve on that side because its attached itself to it, and depending on how much they have to manipulate the nerve to get it off, Cameron could have some facial paralysis but that it should only be temporary and be gone within two weeks.  There are other side effects or possible side effects that I can't remember right now, but they scared me.         

  The surgery is scheduled for Feb. 1st.  He'll be in the hospital 3-5 days and the recovery time at  home will be 2-3 weeks.     I  am so relieved to finally have a date, yet it's two weeks away. So on a plus side, it's giving me time to get things in order like my house cleaned really well so I don't have to worry about it as much when we come home, and making some dinners to freeze so Pat can just pop them in the oven while we're gone and for the first few days we are home so I don't have to worry about making dinner as well as taking care of Cameron.  I can also prepare the school for his absences, get in touch with his teacher and get a homework schedule set up for us.  But it's two weeks of waiting.... Again, not the worlds most patient waiter.    

  Dr. Sheldon said he was going to keep both the other specialists we've seen informed of what's going on.  I thought that was nice, but why?? Lol  although, now that I think about it, Dr. Major said we could do all of our follow up appt's with him here in town, so that's good he's keeping him 
informed too.    

He also asked me, since it is such a rare spot for this tumor to be if it would be ok if they wrote an article for a medical journal featuring Cameron and his tumor. Including pictures of him and his scans.  I said yes, but I want a copy of it when it's finished.  He then looked at Cameron and said, "you'll be famous!"  Cameron just looked at him and said, "yeah, so." Lol  oh I love my boy!!!  I also promised him that we could take a ride on the escalators that they have there when we go back in two weeks for the pre-op appt. 
(Updated here)  Dr. Sheldon said that he talked to Dr. Sharma and looked at the scans, and then went and researched Giant Cell Granulomas in the temporal bones, he found several cases recently, but they are all in Asia. He said that there are a few cases here in the U.S.  but he wants to do the study because he didn't find any in the English language that dealt with them as young as Cameron. 


  Well, I think that's all for now that I can think of. I'll update again later. 

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