Well, it's been a while since we updated.  Judd has been doing pretty good for the past few months.  Still battling on and off  fatigue but overall doing well.  He'll go for days feeling great and then will sleep for 16 hours.  He has had some other weird things that have been going on too, but we never know what is related to the surgery. 

Yesterday was the big results day.  Judd went and had an MRI and lab tests done earlier this month and we met with all of his doctors yesterday to get results. Our first appointment was with the ENT surgeon at Emory Midtown,  and that went really well. He is pretty much healed from the surgery and he has no restrictions.  the nurse was however concerned about his blood pressure, it was really high.

We then went down to Emory Neuro and saw his endocrinologist (Dr. I)  and neurosurgeon (Dr. O). Dr. I spent a lot of time with us going over his lab results and some of the other symptoms Judd has been experiencing.  The net-net is that he will have to remain on Cortisol replacement. While this is most likely creating some side-effects (possibly the high blood pressure - which was even higher when they took it there), they are going to try and tweak the dosage to get it right. It's not an exact science, more like trial and error. 

Dr. I is hopeful that he may regain some additional cortisol production in the future and will continue to monitor.  Unfortunately, prior to the surgery, the tumor had already damaged parts of the pituitary that controlled other hormones and those will most likely not return.  So Judd will have to go and see a few other doctors to prescribe some additional treatments.

Last, but certainly not least, we saw Dr. O.  We were prepared and expecting to hear that there was residual tumor left and that Judd would need radiation therapy but Dr. Oyesiku came in with a big smile and said "well, we got that thing, didn't we"?  He showed us the before and after MRI's and showed us the "dog ear" tumor (about 1.25 inches in diameter) that pushed above the optic nerves into his hypothalamus and was wedged between the carotid arteries. Just to give you perspective, the pituitary is about the size of pea. He said that the surgery was one of the more difficult one's he's done and that in comparison to most of the tumors he removes this one was exceptionally large.  Of course, at this point, Judd offered to be a case study :)  

We were both in disbelief and I had to hear Dr. O confirm to us that Judd would NOT need radiation, and he did confirm that! Praise the LORD!  I think we both teared up and of course I had to hug Dr. O!  He will continue to do yearly MRI's and visits with Dr. O but this was truly the best Christmas present we could ever get!

We really understand how blessed we are and can't thank you all enough for the prayers and well wishes.  We pray and hope that each of you has a wonderful holiday and that you all enjoy the time with your loved ones.  

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!