I'm reluctant to say this, but Karl is coming home today. I only feel confident saying this because he is literally in the car right now on his way. I did not go with Alan, Karl's oldest brother, and my mom to the hospital this morning. I talked to my mom briefly after she spoke with the doctor this morning. This is the plan: Karl will be home until next Wednesday. On Wednesday they will check him back into the University of Chicago Hospital. He will get a special MRI take on Wednesday. This MRI is unique because they will ask him questions during the exam and map out what part of the his brain Karl is using to respond. They need to do this because on Friday Dr. Yamini and his medical team will perform a second surgery; this time with the sole purpose of removing as much of the tumor as possible. By "mapping out" Karl's brain prior to the surgery they will be able to determine where they can be more aggressive and where they will need to act more conservatively. The goal is to remove 70%-80% of the tumor before Karl begins radiation.
The type of tumor Karl has is called glioblastoma. You may have heard of this type of tumor recently because it is, I believe, what Senator Kennedy had.
You can google glioblastoma but basically they cannot remove all of the tumor because this it has small "fingers" that reach into the brain. You can remove the bulk of it but the small fingers are too many and too deep in the brain. The radiation will take care of these parts of the tumor.
I apologize if I just confused you all more. This is just how I understand everything.
It'll be good to have Karl home.
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