Back to the ER

Well today Ben woke up in worse shape then the day before. He could barely even move his right side and had an extremely bad headache. We called the on call doc who said we should wait till 8am which was only two hours and call Dr. Chang to see what he thought we should do. So at 8am we called Dr. Chang who said he wanted us to come in immediately. By the time we got there Ben couldn't even lift his right arm and he was extremely fatigued. Dr. Chang said that he wanted us to increase Ben's steroid again so that he would now be getting 16mg a day. He ordered a CT scan and MRI so they could see if there had been any changes or if he was bleeding at all. He also asked if Ben was nauseous or had vomited which at that time he hadn't. He said that we should go down and get his radiation treatment since we were already there, but if Ben's symptoms got worse to head straight to the ER. Marla and Terry took Ben downstairs for treatment as I went to the front desk to let them know Ben was headed downstairs. By the time I got downstairs I ran into them in the hallway where Ben had vomited. I immediately went back upstairs to let Dr. Chang know. He then said to head directly to the ER. We checked into the ER and sat around for awhile before we headed off to CT and MRI. We got to the ER about 11:30am and got back from MRI around 3pm. Ben seemed to be getting worse as the day went on. By 4pm he was barely even responding. Finally a doctor came and let us know he had looked at the scans. The scans appeared to show that the tumor had progressed but the doctor said that it is hard to tell since the radiation can cause swelling that makes it look like the tumor has grown. He said that they would be admitting Ben and upping his steroids even more to try to decrease all the swelling. He said that the swelling in the brain was making Ben extremely tired and that is why he wasn't responding all that well. We are now back on the 8th floor and once again Raider was a hit with the nurses. Ben is sleeping and I hope that the steroid kicks in and he gets some strength back. Currently he is unable to use the right side of his body at all. Please keep him in your prayers. He really needs them now more than ever. We are praying that the steroids help and that it is just swelling causing his symptoms and that the tumor has not progressed. My mom comes back tomorrow so please pray for safe travels for her as well.