It was a long day. We got a call around 8:00 am asking my father to come by to sign off on some consents, so he left my house and went to the hospital early. I decided to wait a bit at home, and asked my father to call when the doctor arrived. Jeremy arrived at the hospital as early as he could get there – Jen and the girls were headed off on vacation, and Jeremy was due to leave for a trip to California, so he had planned to bring his dog down to leave at my parents’ house while he was away. He stopped there first to leave the dog and pick up some clothing and medicine for Dad.
I arrived at the hospital around 9:30. We were initially told that Dr. Slotkin would be by to talk to us. We spent all day waiting – waiting for tests, waiting for doctors – just waiting. My mom was in the ICU, and no children were allowed there. Luckily, there was an ICU waiting room on the floor, and we were able to keep the baby there all day. Elliot came and went a few times with Micah, my friends Heather and Laurie came by for a few hours each to sit with the baby, and my parents’ friends Gail and Steven and Suellen and Greg and Arleen and Lorin came by to sit with us. After a long day, no doctors showed up at all. Instead, we were told that Dr. Powers would be by in the morning to talk to us.
As the day progressed, I grew impatient. As is typical of me, I wanted information, and quickly, so I called my friend, Dr. Jennifer Berkeley, who is a neurologist. She trained at Hopkins and currently working at Sinai in Baltimore, and she was able to come by the hospital. We gave her permission to review mom’s records, and she informed us that my mother’s tumor was the worst possible tumor – likely a glioblastoma. She told us that the neurosurgeon would likely recommend de-bulking surgery to reduce the tumor, followed by radiation and chemo. She asked for permission to bring a copy of the scans to work in the morning and get a second opinion from her neurosurgery colleagues. She said that there was always a chance that the tumor would appear to be a glioblastoma, but could always be something more treatable, like Lymphoma CNS.
Needless to say, we were devastated, although we continued to hope that Dr. Powers would bring us other news in the morning.