24th July 2018

Nick's still in critical care at Victoria Hospital. He's waking up gradually. Alex and her mom are by his side. The CT images have been analysed, and show that the occipital lobe tumour is very small, but had been bleeding, which lead to local swelling - hence the visual distortions and seizures. The docs feel that they can get the bleeding under control and proceed with treatment to wipe out the tumour. They feel that brain surgery will not be necessary at this time.

We found a flight getting out of here at 2 pm, arriving in Toronto at 11:35 am on the 25th. Presumably we'll be back in London by 3 pm or so.

4:30 pm EST
Dr. Potvin, Nick's oncologist, has a plan. An MRI has just been done. If Nick has only one or two small brain lesions, then radiation is the plan. If the MRI reveals more, then it's chemo. In any case, the long range plan remains the same: some form of chemotherapy designed to manage the disease, in conjunction with more experimental treatments such as immunotherapy, and genetic-based targeted therapy. I guess we knew we'd be at this crossroads, back in February, but it's awfully weird and stressful now that it's upon us, and precipitated by such an acute medical crisis. We've spent a ton of money to fly home early - a few more $ on drinks on the plane won't be missed at this point. We're getting to feel like that fine Yiddish molusc, the OY-ster!