One month and 10 days later...

RJ went for his day of follow-up appointments today, starting at 9:30 with a blood draw. We followed that with a visit to the Hematologist, who apparently scheduled the appointment with me, but forgot to put it into their computers. Not a problem, we were supposed to see them at 10 and got in at around 10:30 or so instead. Everything there was good, there weren't any results back from the blood work yet but there was nothing from the previous tests to raise concerns. RJ hasn't had any post-operative bleeding or bruising issues, and has been feeling great so that appointment was quick and easy. We finished there at 11 and the CT scan was scheduled for 1:15, so we headed down to the lobby to get drinks (no food for RJ yet).

We were having drinks when their seating area outside the cafe started filling up, so we decided to head down to radiology early. We got down there and registered, and they had a slow spot so RJ got his scan done early and we got disks with the scans :) Since we were out of there before 1 and the Neurosurgeon appointment wasn't until 2:15, we went to get something to eat (thinking we were stuck with McDonald's), and the ad for SmashBurger caught RJ's eye in the elevator. Guess where we went for lunch.... Not McDonald's, that's for sure!

After that we headed to the Neurosurgeon's office and watched part of "Horton Hears a Who" in the lobby while waiting. That appointment also went very well, there is almost no evidence left of the clot removal aside from the titanium brackets & screws, and a little tiny space (comparatively) left from the surgery. The space is about the size of the tip of the pinky, from the last knuckle to the tip, according to the doctor. He will need to go for another CT and follow-up visit 3 months from now, but otherwise everything looks good. He can drive with an adult after he's finished tapering off the Keppra, and then on his own a couple weeks after that as long as he doesn't have any problems. We will need to keep watching for seizures but there's been none so far.

When we were leaving there the Hematologist called with the results of 2 of the 3 blood tests drawn this morning, the Factor 11 test is negative, but the Von Willebrand's showed the same numbers as in the hospital, meaning he does have a mild form of this disease.


I'll post about that later, for now I have to go get RJ so we can go to college :) He managed to finish the first trimester with a 4.4 GPA, even being gone and having brain surgery :) Way to go RJ!!