Kate Update: Still Waiting...

Quick Update: We had a meeting at the hospital in Madison yesterday. We were late to the appointment as we were still camping in Decorah Monday morning! I had a sitter back in Mauston for the boys, so we loaded up, went all the way home, dropped the boys and jumped in the truck and headed down to Madison. Ugh. 

I was very pleased that they were still able to see us, 30 minutes late. We met with Dr. Hau Le, pediatric surgeon. There was also a medical student and nurse in the room. He examined Kate briefly and then just spoke with us. He showed us some pics of the mass and described it to us. He went over the possibilities.

Kate had blood drawn last a week ago to rule out a parasite/tapeworm type scenario. It is a rare chance, but apparently it can also cause something like this in the liver. They need to rule it out because if that is the cause, they DO NOT want to mess with it. No surgical removal. That could lead to very, very bad things and so he said we would be referred to Infectious Diseases and follow some other protocols. 

So, if the labs come back negative for that...they would like to surgically remove the whole mass (wedge resection of the liver). A biopsy would likely not be complete and they could miss some of the tissue and they don't want to take that chance. 

They will try and do it laproscopically but need to remove the whole thing intact, they don't want to compress it or open it up, in case it is a tumor that would spread. So, they would make a larger incision to bring it out whole. There is also the possibility that they would need to "go open" if things go that way. The complications he mentioned in this meeting were "knicking" the bile duct and so they will place a drain at first to make sure that there is no bile (or blood) in her belly. Once she is eating and the drain is looking good, they will be able to remove it and we would work towards discharge from the hospital. It will likely be a 2-3 day hospital stay. If they have to "go open" they can do a post-operative epidural for the pain. Obviously, Dave will be talking about the anesthesia plan with her CRNA :) 

They thought that they would have the labs back by now and were planning on surgery for tomorrow (April 20) but since they aren't back yet, it will likely be delayed. Dr. Le is on call all next week - and he doesn't want to do it then. So he said May 4 or May 11. 

Kate has been working all year on three dance routines and her big recital is May 7, so we are hoping we can request May 11 so she can still attend that. Since she is having no pain or other symptoms from this, we don't see that as a problem. 

Kate sat quietly in Dave's arms while the doctors were in the room. When they started talking about surgery, she just sobbed into Dave's neck. It was heartbreaking. She has been saying all along, she doesn't want surgery :(  Dave was getting teary too. I just kept trying to think of questions and then I just wanted them to leave:) I'm mad that we are waiting on the bloodwork for over a week. Though, I'll take the extra time as a good thing, I guess. We can prepare and make a plan. 

We have been talking more to Kate about it and explaining why we need to do this and of course, promising her all kinds of things:) The docs and nurses have all been great and we trust them. They took her case to the Tumor Board and they got many opinions and people from all services to look at the case. 

So, the main thing right now is waiting on the lab result. If it is negative, we know what will be next. If it is positive for this rare parasite (ahhh!!) I don't know what is next and we'll have to go down and talk to new people about that. 

Thank you so much for all the thoughts and prayers...I'll keep you updated.

She requested Chinese food, so after the appointment, we went to PF Changs!
She's not smiling here, but she was in good spirits. And can rock the chopsticks! :) 

Kate is loving soccer!

Some Mommy and Katie time:) We both treasure this so much!