Written Jun 26, 2012 8:37am
At the beach last week, Kevin noticed a lump under Evelyn's left rib cage. We are so thankful now that we went to the beach and saw her in her little bathing suit. Otherwise we may not have found it. She has been in no pain. No clue this was happening. So we are thankful we found it when we did.
On Sunday we went to the pediatrician, they took bloodwork which showed nothing. She didn't know what it could be so we went to the pediatric ER. An X-ray and CT Scan later and they saw the tumor growing out of her left kidney. They sent us (by ambulance) to Brenner's to meet with Oncologists and Surgeons.
At Brenner's she has had a full abdominal ultra sound. The tumor is 5" across - the size of a grapefruit - in her tiny little body. Lots of smart people have decided the best thing to do is remove whole tumor and her kidney. That surgery is this afternoon. It will take 4 hours. They are also putting in a port cath. This will be for her chemo treatments. There is a 90% chance that will be the next step. We will be here the rest of the week for recovery from the surgery. Depending on what they find will determine if we go home for a few days or just stay here and begin treatments.
The initial thought is it is a Wilms tumor. (http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=5ceb061585f70110VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD) After surgery, it will take 3-4 days for the pathology report to come back. This will tell us exactly what type of cancer, what stage and from there we will determine our treatment path. They won't talk much about treatment right now but it could be a minimum of 15 weeks of chemo.
Honestly, we can't process that right now. One step at a time. Someone is teaching me a hard lessons in patience and loss of control.
Evelyn is such a strong and brave little girl. Her stubborness and strong will are going to come in very handy over the next few months.
We will post updates as we have them. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. It means more than you could possibly imagine. We are lucky to have such a great network of friends and family
On Sunday we went to the pediatrician, they took bloodwork which showed nothing. She didn't know what it could be so we went to the pediatric ER. An X-ray and CT Scan later and they saw the tumor growing out of her left kidney. They sent us (by ambulance) to Brenner's to meet with Oncologists and Surgeons.
At Brenner's she has had a full abdominal ultra sound. The tumor is 5" across - the size of a grapefruit - in her tiny little body. Lots of smart people have decided the best thing to do is remove whole tumor and her kidney. That surgery is this afternoon. It will take 4 hours. They are also putting in a port cath. This will be for her chemo treatments. There is a 90% chance that will be the next step. We will be here the rest of the week for recovery from the surgery. Depending on what they find will determine if we go home for a few days or just stay here and begin treatments.
The initial thought is it is a Wilms tumor. (http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=5ceb061585f70110VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD) After surgery, it will take 3-4 days for the pathology report to come back. This will tell us exactly what type of cancer, what stage and from there we will determine our treatment path. They won't talk much about treatment right now but it could be a minimum of 15 weeks of chemo.
Honestly, we can't process that right now. One step at a time. Someone is teaching me a hard lessons in patience and loss of control.
Evelyn is such a strong and brave little girl. Her stubborness and strong will are going to come in very handy over the next few months.
We will post updates as we have them. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. It means more than you could possibly imagine. We are lucky to have such a great network of friends and family
People you may never know are holding your precious family and Evelyn's medical team up in prayer. We will continue to pray for your strength and continued hope. Keep working through one day at a time. xxoo
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