Closure!

Ashley's surgery was uneventful today. Just the way we like it. Taking out the port took 15 minutes and other than a little accidental scrape on her neck from a clip they use on the surgical paper, she came out great! They went into the same incision they made when they first inserted the port.


Then the hearing test came. I'm happy to announce that she does some have some high frequency loss, its most likely not at the conversational level. They want to continue to monitor her hearing every 3 months but not under sedation, rather just the normal hearing "behavioral" type tests. WHEW! I like that there's no more surgery. And Tony and I can't tell you how good it felt to hear the Audiologist say that "she doesn't need amplification" i.e. hearing aids.

Here is a photo of Ashley being handed off to her two anastesiologists. Look at how small the one Doc is? I bet he weighed 100 pounds max. This is only the 2nd time I've ever handed her off to a doc and they took her away. Normally I go into the OR with her and help them with sedation. As you can see in this photo, Ashley had just fallen asleep on her own. If you catch her in her first 10 minutes of sleep... even a freight train can't wake her. A MAJOR victory for us today.



We're home and very happy. We started this journey on a Friday night at 5 pm in May 2008. And at 5 pm on a Friday in November 2008 we have closure. Yahoo. Next steps... Next Friday we find out what her AFP level is and her final Pendamadine med will be given. AFP is the tumor marker in the blood for Hepatoblastoma. We want it under 12. Last time in Sept. it was 2.1. - April