Update - October 14, 2008

October 14, 2008 - Bear is unable to walk today. He tells me he stood up for a few minutes but shook the entire time while holding on to the bed. He is finding it difficult to move his legs and hips. His legs are very sore. He is finding it difficult to go to the bathroom. He has not had a bowel movement since prior to arriving to the hospital.

Radiation oncologist came in to see him today and explains that the radiation does not seem to be doing its job. Tomorrow they will increase the radiation to a higher dosage, and hope that it will help a little bit. Surgery is still not an option because of the location of the tumor on his spine in addition to the fact that there are spots on his liver and lungs. Chemo may still be an option but uncertain. Will it even help?

The damage to his legs may be permanent. Only time will tell.

The image to the left here is my interpretation of a little diagram that the doctor drew while talking to us.

This is Bear's spine. The little squares are the spinal cord and the long rectangle is the spinal column, I think he said.

The red dots indicate the part of the spine that was being pressed on by the previous tumor that was removed from him by surgery on August 29.

The red dashes indicate where he was originally radiated on.

The black blobs are the current tumor and shows how they are located between the spinal cord and the spinal column (please forgive me if I got the words wrong) and the black dots are the spots on his liver. He also has spots on his lungs.

This shows how invasive surgery will be. Before the tumor was on his Thoratic bone and was just pressing against the spine.

Bear is obviously very scared and is worried he will not make it to Christmas. I am scared too. I couldn't bear to loose my Bear too.