Thanksgiving

We began our Thanksgiving a week early and it was scrumptious. However, it started off with an appointment at the urgent care center at the Moran Eye Institute (per Huntsman's recommendation - it is attached to the U of U Hospital) in the morning as Nick had an infection in his right eye. After several tests, it was decided to start back up on 2 different antibiotics and keep a close look on his eye since we were going in for an MRI and CT scan on the following Monday, as well as an appointment with his oncologist. Seemed to work - he responded quite well and his eye was 100% better by Friday morning.

On Monday morning, Nick had both scans done, lab work, appointment with Dr. Chen (who was not worried about his eye) and then nabbed the last bed available at Huntsman. Whew! We received the CT scan results later in evening and it was a little concerning to me.

Tuesday afternoon, we received the MRI results; also concerning. I spoke to Dr. Chen and she told me not to worry, probably post-surgery or radiation change. She had sent the results to Dr. Sharma (Nick's surgeon) for his assessment and will also present to the tumor board next Monday. I sent an email out to the "rhabdo kids" group and heard back from 2 other moms that stated sinus/orbit rhabdo often have positive scans with no cancer - could be anything from residual treatment to snot. Then later that night, Nick's godmothers arrived with Chinese food and a surprise - they came in his room dressed as grapes singing, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", but with their own lyrics written by Denise herself (a songwriter, who knew?).



Sample of the lyrics:
"Livin your life is what you'd rather do
Now all of the choices are up to you
Courage, strength and lots of prayers
Family and friends are always there.
It's your time to live loud and strong
With your own team to cheer you on
We're so proud that we...
Heard it through the grapevine..."

They also visited Harrison down the hall to the west and Jason (new 19 year old with a rare form of cancer) down the other hall to the east. Nick stayed and visited with Jason and his mom for about a half an hour as they had lots of questions for him. Nice way to end the evening!

Wednesday morning I stopped by Dr. Sharma's office to personally add maternal pressure for him to look at the reports asap. When I returned to the hospital, I received another phone call from Dr. Chen; she had spoken with the radiologist and has decided there is some urgency to the scans after all. She asked if I would get a cd burned of the scans and have them delivered to Dr. Sharma for his review and schedule an appointment with him December 3rd, when Nick's counts have recovered. She still said not to worry yet - still could be nothing, but may need surgery. I personally picked up the scans and hand delivered them to Dr. Sharma's office; due to the holiday, we won't hear from him until Monday, which makes sense anyway since they have to present to the tumor board. This news cast a shadow for the rest of the day. This is a strange space to be in - we don't want to worry yet until we know, but...

Thanksgiving was quiet. We brought up Marie Calendar's turkey feast and watched a football game or two - well, I did, everyone else took a nap.

Just checked Nick out tonight! He is pretty pooped but glad to be home. He needs to get two shots tomorrow - one for his white blood cells and a new one for the red blood cells (I guess they were feeling left out).

We are thankful for so much! We hope everyone's family was blessed this Thanksgiving holiday. I will post again once we hear back from the doctors next week.

Mom