Brother update

We got some good news and some bad news today.

The good news is that they wrote the orders to wake my brother up tomorrow. The bad news is that the labs came back on the tumor and it is melanoma.

While normally associated with skin cancer, melanoma can also affect the brain because the brain has epidermis cells in it from when the body first develops in the womb. They're bringing in the oncologist (Dr. Jotte) tomorrow to talk to us and we'll know more then, but the basic plan is to do a localized radiation blast to his head and probably follow that up with chemo.

I was somewhat encouraged today because he was opening his eyes some and responding to my voice and touch. It made me feel like he was definitely still in there. We really won't know if his brain has been affected or how much until he's awake and can communicate. Once they take the ventilator out, he won't be able to talk much or at all for a while but he should be able to nod and mouth words and write. Will update again when I know more.