Bennett thought he felt a little better than yesterday but still didn’t feel very good. He did decide that he would try to go school after lunch. He didn’t really feel like it but thought he needed to try. He was there for about 2 1/2 hours. When he got home, he felt miserable. His head and stomach was bothering him more. He got sick to his stomach. He took an additional pain pill when he got home. He still has a headache tonight of an 8 so I gave him another dose of pain meds. He still is taking oxycontin twice a day. And takes oxycodine in addition if needed.

He only ate a corn dog and a few bites of sloppy joe all day. I hated he missed the highschool orientation last night. I went and attended the parents sessions but missed him going and learning about what next year is going to be like for him.

He took his weekly 12 methotrexate pills, he had missed taking these the last two weeks. Since his ANC was high enough on Monday, the Dr. wanted him to go ahead with them and his daily 6mp pills. I thought it was a little soon since he was feeling so bad but Dr. didn’t want him going any longer without taking his chemo pills.

I talked to his ENT Dr. that actually did the sinus surgery! (I was impressed) We only talked to her a few minutes after surgery and I hadn’t seen her since. She indicated that when she did the sinus surgery there was no sign of infection, no puss. The scans showed his sinuses were alot worse than what they were she thinks. When she was doing the surgery, she said they were remarkably clean, she called it an unrewarding surgery. It was really healthy, very pick and no yellow. She said she had no reason to do a culture because there was no puss to culture. She did say his mucus was thick and sinus lining was very thick so the surgery was needed. Plus the CT scans findings indicated it was needed as well but the scans were showing the inflammation alot worse than what it actually was.

She cleaned his big sinuses (2 cheeks and 2 nose) and saw that he was getting air through the sinuses so she felt like she didn’t need to go any further to the more dangerous sinuses near his brain.

She feels like because of her findings that his headaches are not caused from the sinusitis. She indicated that his prolonged cough could of been from the thickening of the lining but she was not sure. She said a cough can be caused by several other things too. But he doesn’t have his cough anymore!

She said it will take months for the lining to thin out. “Time” is the only cure. That as more air travels through the sinuses and by using nasal sprays this will help break down the thickening.

I asked her about the MRI that Bennett had in May 2007, I recalled something being found in his sinus. “My text book website” reminded me that he had a mucus cyst in his sphenoid sinus and he had a mastoid effusion. The ENT Dr. recently looked at those MRI results and she indicated several people have a cyst and it’s not a problem as long as no blocking. The mastoid effusion is with the ear and might be fluid on the ear. She confirmed and agreed with what the Dr.’s told us last May; to not to be concerned about these two findings and these would not cause a high fever.

I questioned the antibiotic augmentin that he was prescribed to him for the next six days. The oncology Dr. said he needed this antibiotic for several weeks so I was confused. ENT Dr. said this was a preventive treatment to prevent infection because of burgering up his nose from the surgery.

But he had a fever in the hospital so his oncology Dr. may think it’s needed for the infection that was causing the fever. This is a guess until I hear back from my call yesterday.

What does this all mean? I think it means that ENT Dr. felt like his sinusitis wasn’t as bad as the CT scan showed but it was needed. She believes it is not the cause of his symptoms today.

But has the ENT Dr. done very many sinusitis surgeries on a leukemia patients? Do we really know that his symptoms are not from the thickening of his lining in his sinuses?

She looked at his last scan on Friday and knew there wasn’t going to be a change in the inflammation shown; that it was too soon. She did confirm that they did want the vascular CT scan to see if the inflammation had spread to his brain and it showed negative.

I feel better after talking to her because I understand a little more but at the same time I feel worse because we are back to not knowing why he is sick.

May God bless Bennett and heal him of his pain. May he give us patience and hope to keep our faith strong. May God help us understand all of this and gives us answers to this mystery while keeping Bennett in remission forever!