The initial oncology meeting

We were told we wold meet with Dr. Laura Pirich. We did some research and she did her pediatric oncology fellowship at Northwestern and got to work at the Children's Hospital in Chocago, rated in the top 10 of all children's oncology centers in the US. Good news. We ended up meeting with Dr. Neuberg instead and felt pretty comfortable with him and understood we would be working with the knowledge and experence of the entire team, so we are OK with the deviation from our expectations. We learn that we are still in the diagnosis phase and cannot begin treatment until we understand the full extent of the disease and "stage" it. To begin this, we will do a bone scan this week and get a biopsy of the tumor in the chest as soon as possible.

Dr. Neuberg allows us to see the scans for the first time. I am surprised by the size of the tumor in her chest as it relates to her heart. Not much difference. Then we look at the liver. There are multiple lesions there and my heart breaks more. I look at my precious angel and am reduced to rubble again. Dr. Neuberg encourages us that treatment, when successful, will address this and I try to not lose faith. We need to run a repeat VMA and HVA test on her urine and Dr. Neuberg discusses surgery with us. Sheila is a realtor, and her broker in charge is a former pediatric nurse whose husband is a pediatric endocrinologist at the hospital and he recommended Drs. Reddy or Camps. Dr. Reddy agrees to break protocol and accepts us as his patient. We are encouraged. We have nothing against any doctors there, but a someone with professional knowledge who recommends a colleague is as good as gold. We are to meet with Dr. Reddy on Tuesday 12/19/2006 and we can hopefully schedule surgery Wednesday or Thursday.

Dr. Reddy calls us at home @ 8:30 and we discuss his findings from the scans and we are more pleased. He exudes confidence and at this time, this is what we need. We'll meet tomorrow but he assures us that he can operate on Friday, 12/22 at noon or before. This is happenening quickly.