While we were in the hospital I had a gut feeling we weren't being told everything. Yesterday they finally told us the whole story and it isn't looking good.
Owen's cancer is highly aggressive and growing fast. His prognosis isn't good. The doctors gave us three options. The first option is to do nothing. If we went that route, Owen would be gone in six months. The second option involves extremely high doses of chemo and some type of bone marrow transplant.(I don't know how a bone marrow transplant would help since the cancer is in the spine and spinal fluid.) The third option is chemo and radiation. This is the national protocall for this type of cancer. It has the best chance for recovery however, The side effects are very bad. If it did stop the cancer and it came back, you can't do radiation again.
Young children who get radiation can have...stunted growth, decreased motor skills, low learning capacity(5th grade intelligence for life), being dependent on others for care, not being able to hold down a job and the possibility of a radiation induced tumor later on.
We don't know what path to take. None of them are good routes. If the radiation stopped the cancer but Owen ended up mentally challenged, that would kill me...he is such a smart little guy.
