The beginning

Ashley went in yesterday for a routine 15 month check up and it was anything but routine. We were sent to Children's Hospital where they did an immediate ultrasound on her liver as our Ped thought it seemed enlarged. The ultrasound showed a 6 cm mass in her liver. After several medical personnel communicated with us; they were going to admit us that night, however when they couldn't gather the necessary personnel together (it was late on a Fri. night) we were advised this could wait till Monday for next steps. This is what the doctors told us:

She has a mass in her liver. Its 6 cm and its "well margionalized". We won't know exactly what it is until a biopsy in done. Before a biopsy we need to do a CT scan. This will show if its spread and its exact location and what type of biopsy to do. Once the CT is complete, we'll review it and determine what type of biopsy to do. The biopsy probably won't be scheduled until 2 days after the CT exam. Once the biopsy is done, it will take about two days for those results. If it is what they think it is... "hepatoblastoma", its a very treatable cancer. If your going to get cancer, this is the kind you want. And its in a portion of the liver that is easily accessable for removal. Based upon the u/s results this is what it looks like but the biopsy will prove it. If the cancer is contained in the liver and they can remove it completely, the success rates are very high. We were originally quoted better than 90%. Then there will be a few months of chemo. I don't remember what kind of Chemo but they will need to put an IV in her larger neck or chest veins and the IV will stay there for a while to reduce the number on "pokes".

Okay... now its Saturday. Day 2 of our knowledge base. We spent the day in a daze after little sleep. Went to Grandma's and Grandpa's. Now we're home and have had several conversations with medical personnel through out the day. A dear friend of Tony's (Greg) is a Doctor and cancer survivor. He shed some light on our situation and we're feeling better. We also spoke with Abe Fong the on-call Oncologist/hemotologist at Children's. He also helped calm us. Thats all I have for now. I'm tired and need to get my mind off of things.