Mommy: Ding Dong this week is done!

I think the look on Derek's face here adequately describes the feeling of this week; exhausted.

The week of many tests is over! We kicked it off with a great conversation with our oncologist on Tuesday. Unfortunately, one of the topics covered in that conversation was why the surgical option wasn't an option for us. Both the higher risk of the placement of the tumor, and the fact that part of it is wrapped around a blood vessel that supplies the kidney. BUT the chemo should do the trick, and the doc is still *very* positive and hopeful that Cambria will handle this with minimal side effects.

This picture was from Wednesday, which was her surgical day. She got a portacath put in, and bone marrow taken from her left and right hips. At this point she was a rage filled child as there was no food to be had. Luckily, if we kept walking, she'd be a happy enough camper.

This surgery was easier than the biopsy in many ways... we knew she responded well with the anesthesia, we knew how the surgical center worked, we knew what it was we were dealing with (rather than this unnamed "mass" in her abdomen, all mysterious and alarming) and finally, there were a lot more positive cases surrounding us (like one little girl who was getting a lens transplant so she could see properly) versus the dire cases we were surrounded with the first time. It was harder, however, because it was SO MUCH LONGER. The doctor was a little late, so we got started about 30 minutes late (which would be fine, except that Happy-go-lucky Cambria minus her bottle is 'le rage baby') the REALLY hard part, was how long it was... That first time, the hour between handing off my little girl, and getting to see her in post op seemed an eternity. This time, it was a little more than an hour before the doctor came to tell us he had finished putting the port in, and now the oncology doctors were taking the marrow sample. Then we had to wait for the sample to be taken, and her oncologist came and told her it went well, and she was no longer intubated, but we still had to wait for the anesthesiologist to finish waking her up and taking her to recovery. (During which Derek and took turns pacing quite a bit, and hovering around the front desk every time the phone rang, and then slumping our shoulders each time she called for a different family to go back to recovery)

But, then we finally got called back and got to see this little angel sleeping away

MUCH calmer than last time, where the nurses were so very frantic! We actually had to wait a good 30 minutes or so for her to wake up before she could eat. (And boy did she eat!) She was a bit swollen in the face, and more groggy than last time, but before long (Many, many, many IV/pedialyte induced diapers and a good family nap time later) we had our happy little girl back again :-) Then, JUST as we were waking up, and starting to try and figure out what we were going to do for dinner, Uncle Jim called, saying he was in the area and wanted to bring us dinner (yay!) So we not *only* didn't have to worry about dinner... but we got to see Uncle Jim too! (Which came with nabbing this sweet shot:)

OK! So now we're onto Thursday, which thankfully was MUCH shorter - in fact, we were out of there before noon, and it was a 9am appointment! (Which, in itself left us MUCH brighter and bushier tailed than the 6am appointments:

Here we just got the CT of her lungs, and then headed back to nuclear medicine to get the injection for her MIBG the following day. This *should* have been much quicker than it was... But first, the folks there move a bit slower... you can tell they don't exactly get a rush... Then the nuclear radiologists enter. They were these two old men, who were kind of good cop bad cop, but Children's Hospital nerd edition. One was this vaguely codgery (which came off as super grumpster next to all the incredibly kind and positive folks at Children's) tall old black man, and the other was this super short, bubbly old indian man, and they really would need a sitcom if it weren't' for the fact that they're super nerds (and not in that funny cool way Big Bang Theory handles it)  And they had the *hardest* time getting one of poor Cambria's veins, so much so that they poked around in her right hand until Derek and I both were about ready to tell them to "back away from the baby!" But they didn't get it, so they busted out this cool vein finder thing, and successfully got it in her left hand. Thing is, Cambria didn't cry at all! You know why? She had a bottle. Yup, let two strange old men bruise her hand trying to find a vein, and then poke her again! She just gave one barely audible whine. Basically, our kid is ridiculous.

Finally, we were to Friday. (Phew!!!!!) Once again, she was on food restriction.... this time she did her grumping at the house before we got on the road. A good 45-60 minutes of screaming at us, and she sadly gave in with sort of a "this may be my last entry" vibe. But then after a nice nap while driving back into DC, we had this happy girl at the hospital (despite no bottle):

Somehow, we managed to beat the traffic in on Friday, so we were a good 45 minutes early.... which meant sitting in the waiting room trying to not watch Beyblades. Finally we were called back, and a really sweet RN explained that for this nursing sedation (rather than anesthesia sedation - which every time she said it threw me off, but she meant anesthesia department) Cambria would eat a fairly gross gel that would slowly convince her it was nap time. Then it took about an hour for them to actually get it and get her falling asleep (Again, the nuclear medicine department was kind of a ghost town, so no one was in a rush) The nurse was really sweet though, we've seen repeats of a few nurses and I hope we get to see her again.  Anywho, Cambria is finally getting more sleepy than hungry, and decides a nap is a rather good idea, so we wheel her back to this massive machine. she gets strapped into place with towels separating  her limbs so as to see clearly what's where. Then she gets set between these big readers, which is SUPER creepy!!! here's a picture of a much older child set between these things:

And they're moved so close, by remote! *shudder* Not our favorite scan :-( For me it was especially so, when the doc put it in place, and then set a program to go, where it would change position every 30 seconds or so around in a circle, and it kept adjusting within an inch of her tiny soft face. 

But once all that was over, we went back to the Radiology recovery rooms (much calmer than the post op ones) where we had the same nurse that we had on Wednesday, and she finally got her bottle and were released!

Here's the best part though - on the way out to the parking garage we ran into Cambria's oncologist! We were still waiting on the CT and MIBG, but we got the bone marrow results back, and she's clear!!!! Yay for cancer-free bones!!!!! 

We had a nice family nap for a good 2-3 hours, and had leftover lasagna (thanks again Jim!) and played cards :-) 

Now this weekend we get to do some more decorating and tidying for Christmas, and Cambria's first trip to see Santa!!!!!!