Alan has his pre-op MRI today. Unfortunately, we could only get an afternoon appointment, but luckily Alan woke up early enough to be able to drink some milk before he got cut off. For whatever reason, he was quite happy in the waiting room and then Pedi Prep & Hold until they started changing him onto his hospital gown. Uh oh, the big people are up to something!
They tried something new today - a tube of some kind they inserted in order to get a better image. It certain went faster - Alan was done in half an hour. We probably won't get the results until we see Doc R on the 13th for our pre-op appointment. We are confirmed for surgery on the 18th. This scan is primarily for staging the surgery, but Doc A pointed out a few visits ago that this was a nice, unplanned test of how well the chemotherapy worked. Since our last chemotherapy treatment was in October, hopefully this scan will show lack of growth indicating that the remaining cancer cells are dead. We were a little worried about the delays while we sought out a second opinion at MD Anderson, but Doc P was not concerned. Certainly, Alan is continuing play and move better and better, with no indication of any returning pain or impairment.
In the last couple of days, we have met two more Infantile Fibrosarcoma families. Meredith found our blog and has a four and a half month old daughter who will be getting her second treatment of VAC this week. Liam's mommy sent us a link to Cooper's blog and to the foundation his parents started to help families battling childhood cancer. Cooper was diagnosed last September when he was 6 weeks old and he just got a clear MRI! His mommy is now in touch with us via Facebook. We are so grateful to find more families we can share with. The more families we meet and the more cases we read about, the more we realize that Alan is the old man in terms of this diagnosis. Even if we factor in the time that the tumor was growing, hidden in his abdomen, we suspect based on his symptons that it started somewhere in the six to nine month range.
Finally, our little friend Collin from the Bone Marrow Transplant ward is now in the PICU. Collin was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) last November and had a BMT at the end of April. They've had a hard time controlling his GVHD and now he is on a ventilator in the PICU where we hope they can help him heal. Please pray for healing for this sweet little boy and strength for his parents.
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Christmas toy hi-jinx
I'm sad to hear so many little kids, practically babies, are diagnosed with cancer. However, I'm happy that Alan is doing so well and so active and happy. Alan and all his little friends are always in my prayers. To a Happy and Healthy 2010!
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