This is here so that I can tell everyone who's interested, what's going on with my son Roland. I am going to copy a letter I sent in one version or another to a lot of people. This should bring anyone interested up to date with what's going on.

This was send out Wednesday November 26 after we had the CT Scan:

For once this is not about my autistic son, it is about my oldest son, Roland (he was named after his grandfather, not me, so our middle names are different). For a little while we had been noticing he was scratching his crotch area a lot. We didn't think too much about it (Gina actually thought he was starting his "guy stuff" early). For a separate reason we went to see a geneticist at Ochsner. The geneticist did a physical on Roland and that's when he discovered "the lump". He referred us to our pediatrician. We took him to the doctor and the doctor said most likely it was a hydrocele which is a harmless collection of fluid commonly found in that area. The doctor said we should consult a pediatric surgeon about having it further diagnosed and removed.

Yesterday we took him to Ochsner to a surgeon (Dr. Adolph) who did an ultrasound on the lump. It took about an hour and after 4 different doctors examined the myriad of pictures, it was determined it was not a hydrocele but a tumor. Dr. Adolph ordered a CT scan to determine exactly what it was and, if malignant, if it had spread to any other areas, in particular the lymph nodes in the area.

Today we had the CT scan at Ochsner. They could not determine if it was malignant or not. The good news is they are sure that, if malignant, it has not spread to the lymph nodes. They think there is a high probability it is a rhabdomyosarcoma. How is that for a 10 cent word? It's a tumor which affects kids usually between 2 and 6. Roland is 6. It is found in different parts of the body. 20% are found in the scrotum. The good news here is that this has the highest rate of curability if it is malignant. The odds of a child having rhabdomyosarcoma is 6 in 1 million.

Now more bad news - regardless of if it is malignant or not, Roland is going to have the tumor removed, along with one of his testicles. I don't understand why they would need to do this if it is benign. I didn't get to ask any questions as I was away when the doctor called. I will be talking to him on Friday as, on that day, we are to schedule his surgery for some time next week.

The doctor has warned us that if is malignant it will be aggressively treated which will mean our lives will change dramatically. I can't imagine our lives being more dramatic that what is dealing with our autistic son. I don't know what we are going to do but we are trying to prepare as best we can.

It's so weird to see Roland right now. Of course he has no idea what's happening but he was really excited to "ride" the CT machine, it goes up/down and back and forward. He asked the technician if he could ride it again when the scan was over! If you look at him you would not think anything was wrong at all. He looks fine and feels fine.

Anyway, I'm not sure why I am writing this. Maybe it's therapeutic. If you pray, please pray for my son.

Praise God in His glory for all the things He has done for us and the gifts He has given to us. Foremost among those gifts are my 3 beautiful sons.

So now you know the beginning.

I'll end this post now, The next post has my questions (and answers) from Dr. Adolph when I did get to talk to him on Friday.