Brenton

Well, I feel like I have put off writing about Brent as long as I could.  We have gotten a lot of phone calls and cards recently, and also a lot of questions.  I know people are wanting more information about Brent’s status, so it seems it will be easier to write it here so everyone can get information if they want it!

Back in April/May, Brent started having some numbness from his waistline down.  He went to the chiropractor and she did an x-ray, but said everything seemed fine and he should try some therapy for a while.  For some reason, that just didn’t sit right with us, and we set up an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in the spine.  He ordered an MRI right away, then 6 more MRIs the next day.  He then referred us on to a neurosurgeon who might be able to help us more.  It was explained to us that Brent has a benign tumor growing inside his spinal cord.  We have seen neurosurgeons here in Greensboro, at Wake Forest Baptist, and at Duke (and have realized how amazingly lucky we are to live in NC with such good hospitals!).  They have all said that surgery is imminent, but it is kind of up to us when we want to go ahead with it.  They will have to cut through the healthy part (sensory nerves) of his cord in order to get to the tumor, and will then get as much of the tumor that is possible and safe. They say they use a monitor that will sound an alarm if they start to damage motor nerves, and will stop the surgery if that starts to happen.  This is good because they try to decrease motor damage as much as possible, but it also means that they might not be able to get it all out, and it might come back in the future.  There are obviously a lot of scary side effects of the procedure, but the doctors have said he should expect increased numbness and probably chronic pain, at best.  If we leave it, he could eventually become paralyzed.

We think surgery will be the route Brent will need to take, but have also started exploring other routes—things like demyelinating disease (MS and Devic’s disease), even though the surgeons are "99.9% sure it's a tumor".  The neurologist ordered a visual evoked potential, some blood work, and yet another MRI (of the brain this time).  Brent is having the MRI this Wednesday and we will hopefully know more about the neurologist’s opinions soon.

Why am I telling this now? We had lunch with some great friends the other day, and they said to us “Seriously, tell us if you need anything.  It’s easy to be too proud to ask for help.”  They were right.  We have kept this from a lot of people, mainly because we are still trying to figure everything out, but also because we don’t want people to “freak out” on our behalf.  But, we are now asking for everyone’s help. WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS.  Not just for Brent’s health, but also that we will know what path to take.  That we will be confident in the decisions we make.  That the doctors we encounter will have the knowledge we need.  That we may feel a little bit of peace in a whole lot of overwhelming circumstances.  THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR SINCERE PRAYERS.