Today we are Grateful!!

Before I tell this story, I want to say that it has a happy ending, just so no one worries.  :)  All of this happened so fast and it has kind of been a whirlwind.

About two weeks ago, I found out that our current insurance we switched to in January does not require a co-pay for well checks for my kids.  I decided to take Austin and Sydney in for check up since I don't really take them in regularly after the age of two or so.  All was well and they got flu shots while we were there.  A few days later, I had the thought that I should take Derek and Zack in as well.  I brushed it off, since they are both really healthy and have had minimal sickness since the horrific first year of life ear infections all my kids seem to get.  (Ellie has only had one so far....but heading into Winter....yeah, we will see how that goes.)  Logically, I kept thinking it was kind of dumb to check the big boys out of school for a check up when I knew they were perfectly healthy, but a nagging thought that I should just do it made me keep their appointment.  I rationalized it with the thought that they could also get flu shots there instead of paying to go to the flu clinic later.

Last Thursday was the day of the appointment.  I checked Derek and Zack out of school early and we headed to the doctor's office.

All was well until the doctor asked me to come over to the exam table where he showed me where Derek had a lump.  The doctor thought it was probably a cyst, but possibly a hernia and recommended that Derek have an ultrasound.  The ultrasound was scheduled for Monday at the Primary Children's extension in Riverton.  Okay, let's get this checked out.

I kept Derek home from school on Monday morning, since his appointment was at 9:30.  I had both the girls with me and the kids had fun in the awesome kid-friendly waiting room.  The ultrasound tech did her thing and then called a doctor in to read the ultrasound.  He asked her to take a few more images.  He said our pediatrician would call us later with the results.  We headed out, grabbed a donut for Derek for a treat and took him back to school.

Monday afternoon, I get a call from our pediatrician saying that they would like to refer Derek to a specialist just to make sure all was well.  I was supposed to call and make an appointment later that afternoon.  About an hour later our doctor calls me back and says that he consulted with the specialist, who looked at the ultrasound and determined that the growth was most likely tissue (tumor) and not a cyst.  He said that the specialist said the only option would be surgery.

I called to make the appointment and set it up for Weds. (two days away).  About five minutes later, the scheduler called me back and asked us to come on Tuesday( next day) instead.  He said the specialist said it was in our best interest to come asap.

We were all pretty calm at this point.  There was no point in freaking out if we didn't even know what was going on!  Derek wasn't quite sure what was going on,but was thrilled that he got to keep missing school!

I kept Derek home the next morning and Matt and I drove with him to the Primary Children's downtown.  We saw a great doctor who examined Derek and the ultrasound and told us they wanted to take out the growth the next day.  That was when they first starting talking about the possibility of cancer.  Gulp.  Thankfully, even if that was the case, it would be very treatable and not life-threatening.  But the possibility of Derek going through cancer treatment definitely made my heart heavy.

I asked why the rush to surgery, and the doctor just said, "you don't mess around with this."  The plan was to open Derek up, remove the growth and send it to pathology during surgery.  Depending on what they found, surgery could be more invasive.  Okay....I really like that doctor and was disappointed that he was leaving on vacation and would not be doing the surgery.  He assured us that Dr. Snow would be awesome.  Matt looked him up and found out he was the chief surgeon in that department and seemed fantastic.  We scheduled the surgery and started the long drive home.  I called my mom to see if she could watch the other kids the next day.  I dropped Matt off at work.  I dropped Derek off at school and told his teacher he would be out for a few days.  I picked up my other kids at my neighbors house (where Syd was in their bathtub because she had peed her pants.)  I spent most of the day making arrangements.  We were still feeling very good.  First, that even the worst-case scenario was not life-threatening.  Second, that this growth was even found in the first place.  Several doctors mentioned that it was amazing that the pediatrician even found it since it was small.  Derek had a great blessing that night from Matt and our home teacher.

We got the kids off to school that morning except Matt and Derek were home, of course.  Matt took Derek on a five mile bike ride and Derek was loving being the center of attention.  :)

My mom came to watch the kids and we headed to the hospital.  My dad met us there so he could hand out with Derek for a few minutes during registration.  We got Derek all ready and we were in the surgery waiting area when the surgeon, Dr. Snow, came to talk to us.  We liked him immediately.  A few minutes later the anesthesiologist came over.  He asked when Derek last had anything to eat or drink....and then....trouble.  Derek had had some jello about 3 hours prior.  I was told on the phone the day before that he could have jello.  Apparently, that was not true for his type of surgery.  Umm......yeah....bummer.  So we had to wait three more hours for surgery.  That meant that Dr. Snow would not be operating.  Bummer.  They gave Derek a slurpee and got him playing video games to his heart's content.

Here we are playing Wii in the waiting room.  

They eventually moved us to a recovery room so we could have more privacy while we waited.  

 Ellie was mostly good all day.  Except for her continuous happy screams.  

 Seriously, Derek has never played so many games in his life.  

He was one happy camper.  Except he was STARVING!!

Finally, finally, at 5:30pm Derek was able to go back to surgery.  We had met with his new doctor, Dr. Si, who was AWESOME!  I felt like he answered our questions better than any of the other doctors.  He said the reason they rush this (we had been told by Dr. Snow, that he had tried to get us in to operate on Monday, when he first saw the ultrasound.)  Dr. Si said that if it was cancer, that the doubling rate for that form of cancer is 30 days.  Yikes!  We sent Derek off and settled in to wait.  

I walked the halls with a fussy baby and saw some very sick kids.  We realized pretty quickly that what we were dealing with was small potatoes compared to what many, many families are dealing with.  

The surgery took just over an hour.  Dr. Si came in with a huge grin on his face. The growth was benign, and actually was a cyst.  He found another small issue while he was in there and fixed that right up as well, avoiding a future hernia repair surgery.  We were very relieved and Derek came out of the anesthesia pretty fast.  

He wolfed down four packages of crackers on the way to the car and requested Chick-fil-A on the way home.  He slept soundly all night and when he woke up this morning, and said he felt, "Perfecto!"  He is a little sore and will be taking it easy for a few days.  His brothers and sister made him some welcome home signs.  The hospital gave him a dinosaur blanket, that Sydney promptly claimed as her own.  He is watching movies to his heart's content and loving all the attention.  He has gotten treats and little gifts and they have made his day.  This is him this morning:  

We are very grateful that all is well.  We are also very grateful for the fasting and prayers for him yesterday.  And we are grateful he is home and feeling well.  Hurray!!