The first big hurdle

Yesterday was a pretty good day considering we have a baby with cancer. Friday and Saturday we were a mess. Sunday just a little bit better.

My biggest fears going into the day Monday were the cat scan procedure itself and putting Ashley under. I was worried about some allergic reaction to the anesthesia.
Then the big one, that they would find more cancer throughout her body and not be able to do anything about it. I don’t wish that thought on anybody.

Watching her go under the anesthesia was pretty emotional. April was holding the mask of nitrous over her face while she cried and struggled. Thank god that lasted only 15 seconds or so. Then the nurses told us to kiss her and leave the room.

I was so tense and anxious when we where waiting for the results. The results were about all we could hope for!

The cancer was not in any other part of her body, not in the blood, not in the kidney, nowhere else. Thank you God for that one!

At first, they told us that the tumor was too big to cut out right now. That we would have to do chemo first, shrink the tumor, then get it.

Then the surgeon who would actually be doing the surgery told us that he thinks we can get it on the first try. We won’t even have to do a biopsy, because either way, malignant or benign we would have to take it out.

I guess the liver has two main blood supplies and two main drains. The tumor is on the right side. They will cut off the blood supply on the right side, and watch it turn blue, like putting a rubber band on your finger. Then they will remove the part that is blue and cutoff the drain. The left side will grow into the right side to compensate. We take the right side of the liver and the whole tumor with it. That sounded like good plan to me! Surgery will probably be later this week. She will be in the hospital for a week if everything goes right.

We still have other big hurdles to get over but yesterday was a pretty big one. The next one is the surgery.

I hated to see Ashley miserable when she would get a new tooth. Now they are going to cut open her stomach, almost from one side to the other. I worry about how she will take the pain after the surgery. But at least she will be alive! I can deal with that kind of worry.

One last thing, I can’t tell you how much you start to appreciate things after a few dark days like this.

I want to thank everybody at Wellsfargo for the messages and e-mail’s, all of the playgroup families, you guys are amazing, and all of the friends and family that put us in their thoughts. I think all of the prayers are starting to be answered. I hope it continues. Thanks to Anita and Marion for distributing this for me.

In the middle of the night, when it’s rough and I don’t want to wake up April, I read these things and it helps. It makes you feel like you’re not alone in all of this.

Tony