WE STILL HAVE NO ANSWERS.  His platelets are fine.  His uric acid is fine.  His LDH is high, at 506.  We’ve been waiting all day for the oncologist to interpret these results.  Maybe they’re fishing because they simply don’t know what it is.  I hope that’s the case.  I know it’s strange to hope for that, but I hope for that over hearing the words leukemia, lymphoma, or bone marrow.  If they rule out cancer, which I really hope they do, my next question is, what’s next?  Leaving this cyst has already caused hydrocephalus.  What else might it cause?  I don’t want to have to wait until he’s a quadriplegic to do anything.  I also don’t want to risk harming anything if we needn’t go in there.  It’s such a strange balance to have to weigh.   

They’re running more tests.  Tests for cancer. The thing we keep hearing is, "This is very rare.  We’ve never seen this in a baby before."  Great.  Just great.  "I encourage you to start asking for second opinions."  The infectious disease doctor thinks it’s highly unlikely that this obstruction was caused by something infectious.  The neurosurgeon believes something else in the body has caused the obstruction, that it’s highly unlikely that he was born with it (because of where it is).  The oncologist thinks it’s extremely unlikely that it’s lymphoma (but can only know for sure with fresh spinal fluid).   They’re doing an initial blood smear to watch the behavior of his cells.  If they’re behaving abnormally, they’re then going to go in for a spinal tap and some bone marrow.  If the blood doesn’t show signs of abnormality, then we’re still left twiddling our thumbs.  And, if the obstruction caused hydrocephalus, what else can it cause?  You don’t want to go in and remove it (being that it’s so small and you can risk nerve damage, etc.)  So what happens if it’s not removed?  I don’t want to wait for something bad to happen.  But I also don’t want someone going in there and just making things worse.  So that’s where we are.  Or where we aren’t.