A Father's Day

Where do I begin with this one....

On Father's Day, my son had what we now know as a seizure, caused by a tumor in his brain that was discovered that afternoon. As I type these words, my 16 month old son lays on an operating table while a team of the region's top doctors and specialists poke at his brain.

How does one prepare for this moment? I'm still not sure -- my wife and I are still in a state of shock that we are even here. The shock wears off into true horror in those moments where reality is unavoidable -- the first time they put him under so they could do an MRI or this morning, as my wife took him from my arms and walked into the Operating Theatre, while he looked back at me and giggled.

What we know is this: the tumor is the size of a ping-pong ball, and located under the top layer of the brain between the right frontal and partietal lobes. This section of the brain controls motor functions on the LEFT side of the body, which explains why he had weakness in his left arm and leg when we first found him on Sunday morning (he had his seizure in his crib, so we weren't there to see it. I'm not sure yet if I think that's a good or bad thing).

What the tumor is, how long it has been there, whether or not they'll be able to surgically remove it all, what kind of damage we might see in movement on the left side of his body, what recovery will look like -- these will all be questions that will overtake our lives for the coming week as we look past the end of his surgery.

I'm not sure there is anything more to write yet, as the intensity of this experience will take time to unravel, even as it continues to grow more complex moving forward. I will use this space to update the status of things, as often as I possibly can, so that those we are lucky enough to call friends and family (and those new folks out there in cyber-land) will have a one-stop shop to get the latest on our situation. Prayers, kind words and support are welcomed and received with thanks.