Hello to our dear family and friends,
As some of you know, we have had quite a week. If you don’t mind me taking up some of your time, I would like to share with you about our experience.
About 4 ½ weeks ago our little Jessie began to complain that her thigh was hurting. As a mom, I brushed it off as growing pains, and told her that it would go away soon. As the week went on, she was still complaining about it, and I noticed that she was hurting a lot when she ran and that she was favoring her other leg quite a bit. So at about day 3 I made an appointment to see the doctor, upon which we were not seen by her regular pediatrician. The NP did a brief check-up and stated nothing was wrong, as I had thought. While we were in there, we did see our doctor in passing, whereupon he asked what we were doing! We explained, and he told us to let him know how things were going in the upcoming week. Well, a week later, I still noticed that she was greatly favoring her other leg, and even though she was not complaining about it as much, I could see that she was still in pain. So I left a message for the doc, and he responded immediately. He saw her that day and ordered blood work and an x-ray. The results of both were normal, which was great, but didn’t really solve the problem.
The next week I called again and he referred us to an orthopedic. She reviewed the x-ray and called for another on her pelvis to see if perhaps the pain was caused by arthritis in the hip. Well…it was fine. So she ordered a complete body bone scan so that we could locate the “hot spot” – the exact place of anything abnormal. Well, this past Monday, 15 June 2009, I called to try to make an appointment for the bone scan, and we could either get her in that day or on Thursday. We scheduled it for that day and I found places for the other two kids to go. As the bone scan became more and more clear, we could see that sure enough, there was a very large “hot spot” on her right femur, exactly where she had been complaining of the pain. We also noticed that there was a slight “hot spot” on her left femur, her “good leg”, as well. I was trying really hard not to jump to conclusions! They ordered another x-ray immediately, and sure enough, on her right femur (the hurt one), there was a large abnormality. They forwarded those results to her orthopedic, and an emergency MRI was set up for the next day.
If any of you know anything about getting an MRI, you need to stay still for about 30-45 minutes. With young children they like to sedate them so they can get the best picture on the first try. Now, at The Children’s Hospital, an appointment for a sedated MRI is looking at about 6 weeks out. However, they scheduled her in on Tuesday at the end of the day. Needless to say, that was the longest day of our lives, going until the next morning. Wednesday morning the orthopedic phoned us by 8:am and told us that we would need to meet with the pediatric orthopedic oncologist that day. He has been taken out of surgery twice to review Jessie’s MRI results and he wanted to meet with us that day and set up a biopsy for the next day. As you could imagine, none of this was looking like a situation that any parent would want to be in. Dan and I were very emotionally drained. We had told the situation to our family, of course, and to many of our friends. We had so many people remembering Jessie and us in their prayers, and by this point, we could truly feel those prayers with us. Thank you.
So, Wednesday evening we met with the oncologist and he went over all of Jessie’s x-rays and MRI result with us. Interestingly, when we looked at her very first x-ray from 2 weeks ago, we could see a slight abnormality on it. It was very slight, however, so no one spotted it until we knew where to look. He spoke with us about the procedure and what he was looking for. He also ordered an second blood test, which again came out normal. He did tell us however, that the two things he was looking for were leukemia and a benign tumor called Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH). Well, it was a completely up or completely down result. We checked-in to the hospital the next day, Thursday 18 June 2009, at 7:am, to prepare for a 9:am biopsy. Jessie was so brave and did so well. Much better than her parents. J As you can imagine, the time did not fly. But the moment did come when the doctor and his team came out to meet us. He diagnosed Jessie with having LCH. I can cry tears of joy now. What a moment in your life.
The anticipation and anxiety of trying to prepare yourself for a turn that you have feared since the moment your child was born. Then to be given the blessing of an answered prayer when your told that this condition is generally treated with Tylenol or Advil. On rare occasions a child will take a MILD dose of chemotherapy, but only if the tumor is invasive to the bone or another organ. So for the next year Jessie will have a series of x-rays, and most likely she will have other bones that will be effected. We already know that there is one forming on the left leg. Today is Saturday. Jessie will get to take the bandage off tomorrow. We will begin to strengthen her little leg, and remember to thank our Heavenly Father everyday for the health of all of our children.
Just reading that makes me say 'Whew!!' What a blessing to have everyone home and on the mend! Jessie's uncle Evan (who is in the mission field) also sends his love and gratitude that Jessie is ok. He didn't hear about it until it was all over. :)
And now, pictures!!
Dad changes the bandage. Look at that little swollen leg!
That was some incision! Almost the whole length of her thigh!
That was exhausting!
Ellen's getting some Z's, too.
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