Jon and I are here at the UW, Dan just left for the night. Its been a long day for everyone. I had a chance to speak with one of the doctors and he explained a little more about the elevated calcium. There are two possibilities; 1. the tumors or the liver are producing hormones that effect his parathyroid gland which in turn controls the amount of calcium in his blood or 2. the cancer has spread to his bones and the calcium is being released into the blood stream from the bone damage. Based upon what I've seen so far I would go with option #1. In all the scans there has never been cancer in his bones and we already know his AFP is elevated from the tumors in the liver which would support the hormone theory. The doctors are still debating on what tests to order but it will probably be a bone scan and/or parathyroid tests. Jon is currently receiving IV saline to dilute the calcium and it has dropped one point since this morning. They will be able to treat the hormone issue with medication once they determine the cause. We will no more tomorrow and it is expected that Jon will be released on Sunday. He does seem slightly better tonight, at least talking a little bit and I got a wink when I arrived, but he still is confused and exhausted. The doctors believe that the confusion is secondary to the elevated calcium.

There has been some discussion among the immediate family about whether or not Jon wants to continue to fight cancer. Anyone who has witnessed all that he has endured could completely understand if he would want to give up after 2 1/2 years of this. Levi and I had talked a few days ago about trying to broach this subject with him when he was more coherent so that we could continue to exercise his wishes. When Jon saw Dr. Lin last week Levi said he told the doctor that if he was going down he wanted to go "guns blazing". He repeated those sentiments today several time to Dan and the doctors so we all feel confident that he is still in the fight. I have always deferred to Jon's wishes in this battle, if he wants to fight 500% then I'm right there with him, but if he ever gets to the point that he's tired and fed-up then I will support that decision as well. It was nice, however, to receive confirmation that the old Jon is still in there, continuing the fight.