Life after the CT scan

December 7th

Around dinner time, William's hospital room observation station was flooded with specialists, residents and nurses all huddled around the computer monitor reviewing the radiologist's report of the CT scan. Dr. Ratner from pediatric surgery led the way into our room to share the news. It went something along the lines of,

Ratner: "so, the CT scan confirmed a very large tumor in the abdomen. It is entangled in a number of vessels, nerves and necessary organs...we need to get to this thing and take a biopsy to properly stage this...and we will be placing a pic line...'

Fred: "oh, what is a pic line for?"

Ratner: "for the delivery of chemotherapy"

Fred: "so we're definitely looking at cancer?"

Ratner: "oh, most definitely. This can not be taken out now - it is much too large, so it will need chemotherapy..."

Words can't nearly begin to properly express what goes through a mother's head when you hear these words, particularly when it is in reference to your 6-month-old baby who is in your arms at the time. All I can remember is looking back and forth at Fred, to my dad who was holding back the tears behind us hearing this news...and the flood of thoughts that pass so rapidly and uncontrollably through your head. Our lives seemed to have forever changed in the blink of an eye.

In the end, we learned the tumor measures approximately 9.1 x 5.6 x 5.8 cm and originated from his left adrenal grand. It is displacing his pancreas anteriorly, his spleen laterally and the left kidney inferolaterally. It's encasing the superior mesenteric artery (supplies the intestine), superior mesenteric vein, the aorta, portions of the inferior vena cava, a portion of the portal vein (GI tract and spleen) and the left renal (kidney) artery and vein.

Oh, and to top it off, we also learned William has a right inguinal hernia and that testicle is undescended...joy!

And so, William was put on the notorious "add-on" list for a huge day of scans and surgery for the following day.