BLOOD DRAW

Carl had his blood draw today. He found out he was supposed to fast, so he is fasting tomorrow morning for his glucose test. They rescheduled his neurosurgeon appointment for after Thanksgiving as it takes a week to get the results back. He ended up speaking to his Endocrinologist (wonderful woman). The following is what he found out:

They are going to try medicine to control his Human Growth Hormone (HGH) effects. Doing this will not stop the HGH from increasing. This will be done to buy some time until his next surgery. The surgery will still take place sometime in the near future. Dr. Singhal (his Endocrinologist) says that if neurosurgery does not (basically) get their act in gear and schedule surgery, she will send Carl elsewhere. Some of the concerns they have with the increasing HGH levels - it can cause diabetes, heart conditions/complications, organ damage, etc. When the tumor is finally out, they may still need to perform follow-up work. Some people are perfectly fine after the surgery, some need additional work. They ask all the time if his hands and feet are growing - they are not growing. She is aware of his other symptoms (eye twitching, body hair, fingernails) and says that although they really don't relate too much with his condition, she did note them. It is possible the hair and nails are a result of his currently screwed up testosterone levels. If the tumor goes untreated, it will continue to encroach on other parts of his brain, so they do need to remove it. They want to test the tumor to make sure it's not the kind of tumor that will grow back.

Basically, there are three steps:
1st step - Surgery
2nd step - medicine