To start, I'd like you all to know that Eila's doing great. You'd never guess she had major surgery just one week ago. She's happy and playing, and shows very little sign of pain or discomfort. She even spent this morning at daycare with her friends. Her cut looks to be healing really well - I've been surprised with how simple (and not gross) it looks.
Yesterday we received some of Eila's pathology results, so we wanted to pass along some information. She does have Wilms tumor; it's stage II. They did not find tumor cells at the edge of the removed tissues. And the big news is that its histology is favorable!
From what we've read on the internet, these results are about as good as we could have hoped for. We are meeting with Eila's oncologists on Tuesday to discuss the results and learn more. And although we have some sort of treatment ahead of us (which is scheduled to begin Thursday), the survival rate for children with Eila's diagnosis is excellent.
Please keep Eila in your prayers.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
We're home
It was a long day of waiting at the hospital for Eila to be discharged, but we finally made it home. And Annikka is home from Grandma & Grandpa's house, too. Eila was clearly very happy to be home, and very happy to be with her sister again. Annikka read Eila her bedtime stories.
We expect to be back in Portland before the end of the week to learn more from the hematology/oncology doctors, but right now we're all just happy to be together again and climbing into our own beds. Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers. We are also very thankful to be so close to a wonderful children's hospital; we received excellent care from the doctors and nurses.
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| From Sept/Oct 2011 |
We expect to be back in Portland before the end of the week to learn more from the hematology/oncology doctors, but right now we're all just happy to be together again and climbing into our own beds. Thank you again for all your thoughts and prayers. We are also very thankful to be so close to a wonderful children's hospital; we received excellent care from the doctors and nurses.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Recovery day 2
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| From Sept/Oct 2011 |
It's been a big day for Eila's post-surgery recovery. She now has no more IV fluids, no more epidural and catheter, and no more limitations on food. "Food!" I'm sure that's what she would have screamed if she only knew the word. Instead, when I offered her yogurt this morning she quickly nodded her head and gave me a look that said she couldn't believe how long it took me to figure out she might be hungry. :) It was great to see her so happy and with energy again, we are definitely seeing more of our Eila again.
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| From Sept/Oct 2011 |
She also enjoyed an 1+ hour ride in the wagon, just looping the floor over and over again (what patience Daddy has). We are all looking forward to finding out if we get to go home tomorrow.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Recovery day
Although Eila had a busy night - lots of vitals checks, a blood transfusion, etc. - there isn't much to report for today. The doctor visits and tests all seem to indicate that she is recovering well from her surgery. Overall it's been a fairly quiet day spent reading books, snuggling, napping, and watching a little football. Annikka, Grandma, and Grandpa also came by to see her.
And today has started our waiting days: waiting for her to recover from surgery so we can go home; waiting for pathology to provide more answers; waiting to learn what's ahead of us.
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| From Sept/Oct 2011 |
And today has started our waiting days: waiting for her to recover from surgery so we can go home; waiting for pathology to provide more answers; waiting to learn what's ahead of us.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Friday Afternoon: Out of Surgery
Eila arrived back in our room about a half an hour ago. She's sleeping peacefully, and although she has a few more tubes hanging on her, she remains cute as ever.
According to the surgeons, the operation was a success. They think it's very likely that the tumor is what's called a Wilms tumor. They remain optimistic because it had not really spread outside the kidney, and they were able to take out everything of concern. Of course, we still have to wait for the pathology results (which could take another week) for an official diagnosis, but this all sounds promising.
So we're still not sure what's ahead for Eila. Depending on the pathology results, it sounds like we could be looking at anything from a few visits with OHSU's oncology doctors, to radiation therapy, to chemotherapy, to a combination of all that and more. Hopefully we'll know much more in this regard in a week or so.
Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers on this difficult day; we feel very blessed to have such a wonderful network of family and friends. We're happy to have this part behind us, and are working on preparing ourselves for whatever lies ahead.
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| From Sept/Oct 2011 |
According to the surgeons, the operation was a success. They think it's very likely that the tumor is what's called a Wilms tumor. They remain optimistic because it had not really spread outside the kidney, and they were able to take out everything of concern. Of course, we still have to wait for the pathology results (which could take another week) for an official diagnosis, but this all sounds promising.
So we're still not sure what's ahead for Eila. Depending on the pathology results, it sounds like we could be looking at anything from a few visits with OHSU's oncology doctors, to radiation therapy, to chemotherapy, to a combination of all that and more. Hopefully we'll know much more in this regard in a week or so.
Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers on this difficult day; we feel very blessed to have such a wonderful network of family and friends. We're happy to have this part behind us, and are working on preparing ourselves for whatever lies ahead.
Friday Morning: Surgery
Joel here.
It's about 11:45 am out here in Oregon. We left Eila with the surgical team about ten minutes ago.
Eila had a good morning. She didn't get to eat, but she was happy and got in some good play time.
Surgery is "expected" to last between two and three hours, although it could be shorter or longer depending upon what they find.
Thanks to everyone for all of the texts, emails, messages, and voice mails. It means a lot.
It's about 11:45 am out here in Oregon. We left Eila with the surgical team about ten minutes ago.
Eila had a good morning. She didn't get to eat, but she was happy and got in some good play time.
Surgery is "expected" to last between two and three hours, although it could be shorter or longer depending upon what they find.
Thanks to everyone for all of the texts, emails, messages, and voice mails. It means a lot.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
CT scan
The goal for today was to perform a CT scan and learn more about Eila's tumor. We were able to get it done this morning, which meant she was able to eat lunch (not eating all morning was a little rough on all of us). She was a little wiggly during the scan, but the images were good enough to get all the information the surgery team needed to develop a plan.
Prepping for CT scan
After reviewing the CT scan results the surgeons believe that the tumor does not appear to have spread to any of the other surrounding organs or tissue. Although they can't be completely certain, but the possibility that it hasn't spread was good news. The surgeon we talked to stressed that this is still preliminary - they will know much more after they actually perform surgery.
Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow at 11:00 am. They'll remove the tumor and the left kidney (a left radical nephrectomy). Then they'll send the tumor to pathology to find out what we're really dealing with. So there are still lots of questions, but we're working in the right direction.
Being a wobbler in the hematology/oncology unit
Prepping for CT scan
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| From Sept/Oct 2011 |
After reviewing the CT scan results the surgeons believe that the tumor does not appear to have spread to any of the other surrounding organs or tissue. Although they can't be completely certain, but the possibility that it hasn't spread was good news. The surgeon we talked to stressed that this is still preliminary - they will know much more after they actually perform surgery.
Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow at 11:00 am. They'll remove the tumor and the left kidney (a left radical nephrectomy). Then they'll send the tumor to pathology to find out what we're really dealing with. So there are still lots of questions, but we're working in the right direction.
Being a wobbler in the hematology/oncology unit
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| From Sept/Oct 2011 |
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