Surgery Scheduled

First off, we are keeping busy. Mainly, it keeps us from dwelling on questions we don't have answers to. Like how we are handling all this. In our heads, we know that God is in control and has all these answers. In reality, we are working hard at trying not to panic. God is good. He has a plan. He will provide everything that we need.

So far, we have chosen Seattle Children's Hospital to provide Gideon's care. They are working in conjunction with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and are one of the best places in the country to be treated. We are thankful to have found a solution so close to home.

We are also very blessed to have had the privilege of talking on the phone with two other families who have walked this road and are on the other side. It was a huge encouragement. When we were facing medical challenges with Elijah, we never had that. I can not tell you how great it was to know that we weren't alone and to know I can call these ladies anytime to ask questions. They also gave us wonderful advice to make sure that we got the sentinel node mapping and biopsy done at the time of the WLE surgery, which will make everything easier for Gideon.

Another blessing has been the doctors at Seattle Children's. They are on top of things. Dr. Ho, the oncologist, called us on Tuesday morning before 9 am. He had just read over the case and wanted to let us know what the plan was. We hadn't expected to hear from anyone until at least Wednesday, and then we thought it would just be a scheduler. But the doctor called and spent about 45 minutes explaining things and answering questions. Then, the scheduler called today. He scheduled us with one plastics surgeon and an ENT. About ten minutes later, Dr. Ho called us again, saying that he wanted a different doctor to do the surgery, and had called Dr. Hopper, the chief of pediatric plastic surgery - he will be doing the surgery himself!

Gideon is not sick right now. He does have a continuous low grade fever and is not healing from his recent fall on his chin (they glued it back together, but it isn't taking.) He has lost 3.8 lbs over the last 4 weeks. And he looks tired, but isn't really sleeping more than usual. All of that makes this whole thing seem even stranger.

So here's the plan as we know it: On Monday, the 10th, we have several (8, I believe) appointments at various places within Seattle Children's. Then, on Tuesday, the 11th, his surgery (wide local excision - WLE) is scheduled. We are prepared for them to remove a large section of his cheek (down to the muscle fascia), do a sentinel node mapping and  biopsy. Then we will go from there.

Thank you all for your prayers. We are really thankful for a great support system and friends.

Blindsided

Today marks 6 full months since Elijah has been hospitalized for any reason.  This is the first time in nearly 6 years we can say that. He is doing great and growing rapidly - we praise the Lord for such wonderful progress. We've had almost an expectation that something would go wrong and this streak of health would be halted. But it hasn't. At least not for Elijah,

Yet, today, we were blindsided with news about Gideon, our energetic 3 year old. In November of last year, we noticed a small wart on the very center of his left cheek. It slowly grew and late in the month, we made an appointment to have it frozen off. Instead of turning black and falling off, it turned red and grew to three times larger.

Our pediatrician referred us to a dermatologist. I put off making the appointment and the "wart" continued to grow. Finally, two weeks ago, we took him in. The dermatologist looked at it and said that he wanted to biopsy it; he felt that we were not dealing with wart, but a cancerous growth. Frankly, I was quite skeptical and expected the results to come back normal.

Today, on the six month anniversary celebrating one child's health, we were told that Gideon has cancer. It is a very rare, aggressive form of skin cancer. He will soon have surgery to remove the remainder of the growth. Out of every 100,000 moles that are biopsied, 1.5 are a type of tumor called Spitz Nevi. Of those 1.5, over 70% are benign.

This form typically spreads to the lymph nodes. He will be tested. There are symptoms that indicate reasons to be concerned about this. Please pray for us as we learn more, seek the right doctors and care for him. The main prayer right now is that it will not and has not spread.

We do know that we serve the Great Physician. He wasn't blindsided and knows how to cure this and has promised to carry us through whatever lies ahead. We know that He will provide all that we need and despite what seems to be difficult news, He is good.