Day 3 (Sunday Dec 8th):
Sunday morning was much more calm than the previous couple of days. With most of the activities needing to wait until the staff was there on Monday, Natalie decided to head home to pack some more clothes, shower, and spend some time with the kids. Her parents had rearranged their schedules and were able to stay and watch our girls for the next week. They had gone to our house the night before to start watching the girls so my Mom could go home.
I decided to get a tour of the unit so Liam and I toured the halls and the nurse showed us the Ronald McDonald room. It was an area in the hospital for patients and families to get lunch or dinner, shower, do laundry, take a nap, or just hang out. The room included an area similar to a family room with books, tv, fireplace, and couches. On a wall was a schedule that showed each day and what donor was bringing in lunch or dinner for that day. The entire month of December was booked! They also showed us an area called Kids Zone where they had toys, foosball, Xbox's, and other crafts and activities for the kids.
I took Liam back to the room for a nap. While he was sleeping the doctors came in and updated us on one of the tests. The levels were not elevated which didn't rule anything out, but it didn't indicate that it was a teratoma or a germ cell tumor. Still more waiting.
I decided to get a tour of the unit so Liam and I toured the halls and the nurse showed us the Ronald McDonald room. It was an area in the hospital for patients and families to get lunch or dinner, shower, do laundry, take a nap, or just hang out. The room included an area similar to a family room with books, tv, fireplace, and couches. On a wall was a schedule that showed each day and what donor was bringing in lunch or dinner for that day. The entire month of December was booked! They also showed us an area called Kids Zone where they had toys, foosball, Xbox's, and other crafts and activities for the kids.
I took Liam back to the room for a nap. While he was sleeping the doctors came in and updated us on one of the tests. The levels were not elevated which didn't rule anything out, but it didn't indicate that it was a teratoma or a germ cell tumor. Still more waiting.
After Liam's nap, we headed to the Ronald McDonald Room where a nice little family brought pizza, chips, and cookies as well as a Caprisun (which Liam loved!). I had a feeling we would probably have a few meals in this room.
After lunch I called Natalie and let her know about the results from the team. She felt like that meant it was a pretty good chance he would end up having the neuroblastoma. I didn't disagree but held on the the hope that it could still be a teratoma.
Later that day, Natalie came back refreshed and ready to go. She also brought Liam's walker so he could run the halls while he had the space. He was able to run around the kitchen in our old house but the new condo doesn't have anywhere for him to go in the walker. He loved being able to run the halls and say hi to everyone. The staff loved his laugh and his smile and got a kick out of him cruising the unit.
After lunch I called Natalie and let her know about the results from the team. She felt like that meant it was a pretty good chance he would end up having the neuroblastoma. I didn't disagree but held on the the hope that it could still be a teratoma.
Later that day, Natalie came back refreshed and ready to go. She also brought Liam's walker so he could run the halls while he had the space. He was able to run around the kitchen in our old house but the new condo doesn't have anywhere for him to go in the walker. He loved being able to run the halls and say hi to everyone. The staff loved his laugh and his smile and got a kick out of him cruising the unit.
I will never forget the smile he had on his face as he raced down the halls. He appeared as happy and healthy as ever and short of the IV in his hand you would have never known he was even a patient. It seemed a little surreal still. What if he did have cancer, would this be the Liam we would see over the next few days? Months? Years? I remember thinking to myself "How can something so precious and innocent be put in this position? Pleading to my Heavenly Father that no matter what happened that this not be the last time I see him like this.
I was standing one end of the hall, watching Natalie and Liam when the doctor approached us. She asked if we wanted to go into the room or stay in the hall and we wanted to let Liam stay in his walker so we stayed in the hall. She looked at us and said, "We got the results back from the urine test and the catecholamines were elevated so we now know for sure that he has a neuroblastoma".
Before all this, I always wondered how we would react to being told your own child has cancer. I envisioned rage, anger, sadness, despair, but surprisingly in that moment, other than a brief disappointment in the results, Natalie and I looked at each other and almost immediately knew everything was going to be ok and we were going to do whatever it took to make him better, no matter how hard, how expensive, or how long. We immediately went into "fix-it" mode. Where do we go from here? How do we make him better? When do treatments start?
People have called, sent texts, messages, and gifts letting us know we were in their thoughts and that they were praying for us. I know it was those prayers combined with our own supplications to our Heavenly Father that helped us get through that moment, otherwise, I don't know that we would have dealt with the news that well.
Natalie and I have always done things TOGETHER. Finances, chores, yardwork, it didn't matter - we are a team. When one of us is down, the other picks us up. When one of us (usually me) get's a crazy idea, the other one keeps us grounded. We went back into the room and took a minute to think about what we had just been told. We both knew that, together, we can accomplish anything and that, together, we were going to get through this. We needed to stay strong for Liam. We needed to stay strong for the girls. We needed to stay strong for each other.
We would win this fight!
After letting our friends and family know the news, we decided to get some rest. Monday would be a busy day. We cuddled up on our little couch and somehow, fell asleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment