Cal Reinhardt

Well, it has been a very surreal day.  We found out today that our nephew, Tim & Lucy's son, Cal, has a brain tumor!  He had been throwing up in the morning for the past few mornings, but otherwise seemed fine.  Then sun & mon he started to be wobbly when he walked.  Lucy brought him in to the doctor this morning.  They thought maybe a virus and did some bloodwork.  Bloodwork was all negative/normal, so they did a CT scan late this afternoon and found a brain tumor as well as hydrocephalus, which is fluid building up in his brain causing pressure.  He was immediately sent to the U of MN amplatz children's hospital.  I was able to meet them there as I was just coming home from work.

The pediatric neurosurgery drs looked at him, reviewed his scans and then gave us the plan.  Cal was then admitted to the pediatric ICU.  He was happily watching movie after movie! :). Plan is for watching him closely overnight--worst part for him will be having to be woken up every hour to check his neuro status.  He is getting decadron which is a very strong steroid to help control swelling from the fluid in his brain.  Right now the fluid is more urgent than the actual tumor.  
Tomorrow morning, likely ~9 or 10ish, he will have a surgery to help the fluid drain.  He will also have an MRI of his brain and spinal cord while he is under anesthesia.  They will be able to tell much more after the MRI.  
The main two tumors they are thinking about are either medulloblastoma or something with initials JPA, both of which are cancers, although they did say it is not completely out of the question that it is benign.  We are hoping for benign, but if not, then hoping for JPA which could be removed well with surgery. The other one would maybe need surgery and chemo radiation and has more chance of metastasis.  Sorry if that's more than you want to know.  Lucy has been asking worst case scenario so she can be extra hopeful if it turns out to not be that!  (You might remember Lucy is a physician's assistant in adult oncology at the u, so her mind has been racing the past few days fearing the worst).

Lucy's parents are going to Tim & Lucy's and then coming to hospital with some stuff for them.  Annabelle has been with Lucy's brother and family.  I was able to stay until they got settled into the ICU.  Like I said, Cal was super excited to watch movie after movie and they gave him a pillow pet to keep, a cozy blanket and some new avengers jammies.  They really have the dream team taking care of them!  

Please pray for little Cal, for Tim & Lucy's minds to rest, and for my mom who is a wreck!!  

We will keep you all posted.
Love, miss