Here's What We Know

We met with the surgeon, Dr. Kevin Kadesky, earlier tonight.

He said that Eva's tumor is approx 13.5 cm or the size of a baseball. He said that they were "pushing the limit" on whether or not they could remove it at all or have to send her to chemo to shrink it before removing it.

To do the surgery, they will do what is called a thorocotomy, which is an incision on the right side of her lower chest. Eva's surgery is very complicated because 1) the size of the tumor and 2) the location. Her ribs are the main problem. His quote "on the complicated scale to 10, this is a 6." He said that the surgery will be from 4-6 hours depending on how long it takes to get it out.

He went through the different things that they might have to do to remove it, cut it in half, take it out whole, cut it away from whatever it is attached to, etc.

Bottom line is that they will do the best they can to get as much of it out tomorrow as possible. He said that they will know right away if they cannot remove it and they will get a biopsy, put in a port for chemo, and close her up.

Either way, Eva will have a port put in for her expected chemotherapy. Now, as you know, we do not have an accurate diagnosis yet and won't for several days up to a week. They will do a frozen section biopsy to get a preliminary diagnosis while they are in the OR. There is a VERY small chance that Eva will not have to have chemo but they want to put in the port anyway so they don't have to go in again. Fine by me.

They have told us that Eva will probably be in the PICU tomorrow night and back in her room the next day if all goes well.

Jon and I are here by ourselves tonight. Our bed is set up in the room but I doubt either of us will get any sleep. Honestly, we are both so scared.

You probably will not hear from me tomorrow, as the day goes. If I can get to a computer, I will be sure to post something. If not, I'll try to have one of my family members post.