Abby's Journey Archive

I left Abby with her Daddy at about 7:45 this evening. She was working on her 3rd glass of ice water and first popsicle. Shortly after coming home C.R. called to let Abby say goodnight to the family and tell us that she was enjoying her cashews and a turkey sandwich. God is great!

Before I left, she did ask if we had results about the tumor. We told her that what Dr. Shafron removed was tumor and that we would be talking about what kind of treatment we would need to do next. She looked disappointed, but said simply, "The chemo makes me sick." And then turned back to her popsicle. Lord, help me learn to accept the disappointments of life with that kind of acceptance.

Praise the Lord for allowing everything to work out so smoothly today. And, praise the Lord for answering our prayers about being at a new hospital. We felt very well cared for today even though we miss our friends at Banner. We learned that one of the Child Life interns from Banner who knows Abby is now the weekend Child Life specialist at Phoenix Children's. Abby will enjoy seeing a familiar face tomorrow.

Thanks for your faithful prayers!

We're getting settled in Abby's room now. Her wakeup was 100 times better than the last surgery, she is alert and as cheerful as you can expect of someone who had a surgeon poking in her skull two hours ago. This is certainly a little gift from God given her state last time.

She has 3 IV sites, one in her neck, and one in each arm. The right arm is an arterial IV, through which they are measuring her blood pressure.

She is eating ice chips right now. In another 15 minutes, if her stomach is still settled, she can have water, then we will move on to popsicles and juice.

Abby's done in surgery and is on her way to pediatric ICU. Dr. Shafron came out to give us a summary of what happened--unfortunately the areas in question were indeed made up of tumor cells. Also, instead of simply taking out just the areas that were abnormal, he extended the resection cavity in an attempt to remove tissue that might be infiltrated but might not yet look that way. So we are indeed looking at some kind of additional therapy, we're just not sure how it will pan out yet.

As of now, we're just waiting for them to finish the cleanup from surgery and then we can go in to see her.