Avery was brought back to the Children’s Hospital ER Saturday night because his symptoms continued to worsen. Thankfully they took our concerns more seriously this time around. The resident physician immediately treated his pain and vomiting and ordered an MRI. After hours in the ER waiting on results a neurosurgeon came in and told us that Avery has a lesion in his brain, that he would be admitted to the PICU for close monitoring and that more testing would need to be done to figure out where to go from there. Obviously this news totally broke us. Since then we have been able to clarify some things. He does have a large mass on his pineal gland. This mass is causing hydrocephalus because his spinal fluid isn’t able to circulate in his ventricles properly. Yesterday they did a lumbar puncture so they could send the spinal fluid to Mayo Clinic to get more definitive answers in a less invasive way. The mass is too large to safely remove at this time so radiation is the only certain thing in the near future on his treatment plan. They have been working hard to control his pain and vomiting but he is still having breakthrough of those as well. He has been the amazing kid we all know him to be, even through it all. We have learned a great deal but have also learned that he has gotten really good at masking and doesn’t want to be burdensome on the staff so he’s having a hard time telling them how badly he hurts.