Reality hits

Honeymoon over and it's time for Joel's treatment to start. I could feel the stress start building up as we drove back to Jacksonville. I was just most worried about the whole general anaesthetic thing. Joel had practised lying still every day in Cocoa Beach, so he was as ready as he was going to be.

We were talked through Joel's treatment plan, and shown images of which areas of his brain would be affected by the radiation.

The green area shows maximum radiation. Fortunately the risk to his vision and his hearing is relatively low. His pituitary gland should be not be greatly affected however his hypothalamus will suffer exposure and as this works with the pituitary gland he may still need hormone treatment when he gets older. As I understand it, damage to healthy cells in the brain stem may result in the same symptoms as a brain stem injury.