Shin is in the Hospital

This is Tony writing for Shin.

Shin had a seizure on Sunday night and I got an ambulance to take her to the hospital. Very scary, but the good news is she is stable, alert and in good spirits now. They have given her anti-seizure medication (valium and epilim) and she seems normal now. Her doctor thinks she can come home from the hospital tomorrow.

At this stage it looks like the brain tumors may be growing, and may have caused some swelling that lead to the seizures. On Sunday night at dinner Shin mentioned she felt a bit odd and that she felt as if she were losing some co-ordination of her right hand. She had trouble cutting her food and put down her glass of water on her plate. We didn't really dwell on it but I guess we were both thinking about the brain tumors. We said we would go see the doctor first thing in the morning, but in hindsight that was a mistake and we should have called the doctor right away.

Shin will have an MRI tomorrow and we will figure out what to do after that. Gamma knife and radiation are possible options. Neither sound very nice, but I took comfort from the fact we were moving on from dealing with the panic of the night before and moving on to a standard course of treatment.

Fortunately, we had several guests visiting. Clare and Ivan were up from Brisbane and Ward was stopping by Singapore on his way returning from India to Australia. It was a big relief to have their help in getting Shin to the ambulance and taking care of Josie and Toby.

Josie and Toby are doing well. They both woke up and heard Shin, but I told them we were taking Shin to the hospital to get some medicine and they accepted that and went back to sleep. It's amazing how resilient kids can be.

I myself feel as though I have been realistic but optimistic about the odds Shin faces, and I thought I was ready for what may come. But I am more shaken and sadder than I thought I'd be after 2 years of living with the fact that Shin has an aggressive type of cancer. And I guess it's mostly a symbolic thing but today was Toby's first day of school - and it made me so sad. I'm not exactly sure why, but I guess it's a combination of knowing how much Shin loves days like this, and knowing how small he is but how excited he is to get on with his life.

The good news is Shin should be able to post again in a couple of days. Thanks to everyone for your support. It's touching how readers were concerned that Shin didn't post today, that neighbors were concerned that an ambulance came, the concern of Toby's school teachers and friends calling in from all over. Shin is special.