SinnerSaint

GREAT NEWS!!! Well, all things considered, it IS great. Anna’s results came back and it puts her at Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, Intermediate Risk, which means to us that she should only need chemo for about 3 months and the docs are hoping that will do the job and get rid of the tumor. The secondary tumor in her eye should be the first thing that goes away, followed by the lesions on her liver.
She will receive the chemo in 4 stages, broken down into 3 – 5 day stays at the hospital. The first stage begins tomorrow, she will be admitted, receive the first chemo dose, and receive more chemo each day of the stay with the docs monitoring the tumors reaction to the chemo, her heart, hearing, liver and kidney functions and everything else that needs monitoring.
Then, we will bring her back into the hospital in 21 days, because her white blood cells need to replenish, she will be given a blood test and if they have replenished, she will begin the next stage. If not, she will come back in a week for another blood test.
This will be repeated 4 times, and if all goes according to plan, the chemo will have done its job and she will be cancer-free.
However, if the tumor does not respond to the chemo, the docs will need to decide on whether she needs any bone marrow, stem cell or platlate transplants, surgery or additional rounds of chemo……or all of the above.
So, thanks again to Guardian and the CoH Podcast crews, all those positive energies are doing their jobs well and I can’t thank you enough.  Please keep all those prayers, thoughts, and energies flowing….. it helps so much.
Thanks,
SS

Hey All,
The hospital called and we set up a meeting with the oncologist and his team of docs, surgeons, etc. at 2pm EST today. I gotta tell you, I am terrified. This is where we find out good new or bad and treatment options.
Please send along a booster of positive thoughts, prayers, energy….anything.
Thanks again everyone, you all have been really great.
SS

Well, we thought she was going to be able to come home on Thursday, but they wanted to do one more test, so we brought her home on Friday. She is doing well, smiling and rolling around....pretty much the same little girl she has always been. We get to keep her home until Wednesday.
Absolutely nothing is planned, no outings, no visiting....just 4 days where she isn't watching the door to see who's here to poke her next
Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers, they mean all the world....really

Hello all,
As you guys know, last night was my turn at the hospital. This morning, once the nurses left after getting her vitals and whatnot, she seemed to be in a really good mood. She was all smiles, for some reason, she doesn't like it when I wear a hat (or mebbe she does) because she usually reaches up to take it from me the first chance she gets. So, today we spent time with her taking my hat away and playing peek-a-boo with it. We walked the floor in the pediatric ward and she waved to the nurses (when she felt like it ). She had another test today that has a name consisting of a group of letters I can't remember at this moment (it has an I, M and a B in it, but I left my paperwork at the hospital for the wife to read tonight).
GOOD NEWS!!!! The doc came to the room to let us know that since we won't get the rest of the results from the tumor biopsy and today's test until next week, we should be able to bring Anna home until they do come in!!!! The wife and I can't wait, I was ready to start loading the car right then.
Thank you all for all the well wishes, the see to be helping so much, I can't tell you how much I appreciate them. Thank you all so much.

Hey Gang,
I really appreciate all the responses....you are all truly awesome. I got to the hospital with both boys in tow around 6pm today. Anna, my daughter, slept for over 24 hours after her surgery. I dunno if it was because she heard the boys and my voices or what, but she woke up, and I held her in my lap while she watched her brothers. The wife said that was the most awake she had been since the surgery. My wife also said the docs came in to tell her that the results of the bone marrow biopsy were clear of cancer as far as they could see, but they are sending the sample to an independent lab in New York that has better equipment, just in case they missed something or it's too small for their equipment here to see. She is a fighter, through and through. As I sit here to type this, I am watching her sleep, she is such a little angel.

Hello all,
I've shared this information with a few in-game friends already, but thought I would come here for prayers and positive thoughts as well......every little bit helps, right?
Anyway, we took my 10 month old daughter to the pediatrician last Tuesday, she has this black eye that isn't going away, not a big shiner by any means, just not going away. Well, the doctor starts ordering full-body x-rays and CAT scans, says he's worried that she may have fractured her eye socket. The doctor in the emergency room decides that a CAT scan would expose my daughter to more radiation than a fracture to her eye socket would warrant.
The next day I bring her in for her follow-up (They also found a urinary tract infection) and while I'm there my wife calls to tell me that the doctors have been calling her cell phone and the house phone, wanting us to bring my daughter back in right away. The doctor again wants to run a CAT scan. I figure there looking for any sign of abuse, since I did bring in my baby with a shiner, but no, I was very wrong.
The x-rays came back clean, nothing to show, the CAT scan came back showing a 10 centimeter mass attached to her adrenal gland. She was immediately admitted to the hospital, and a slew of tests were ordered, among them an MRI. According to the MRI, my baby not only has the 10 centimeter mass, she also has lesions on both her liver and on her bone marrow. The doctor's say my 10 month old baby girl has cancer. It is called Neuroblastoma, and the black eye was the tumor spreading through her bones to her eye socket, causing the bones to slightly mis-form and place pressure to the socket (from what I understand).
My wife and I have been at the hospital all week, today they took her into surgery and biopsied both the tumor mass and the bone marrow and also installed a type of shunt with 2 tubes coming out of her chest....one to take blood for tests, the other to give medicine and chemo.
Since we won't have any additional news until the biopsy results come back in 3 - 5 days, and the surgery went well, we are now switching days at the hospital between us, one stays there and the other stays at home with the boys.
Unsocial bastage that I am, all my friends seem to be in-game here. And so, here I am, asking my friends for any prayers and positive thoughts, energy, anything......cuz every little bit helps Thanks.