How Do You Spell Relief?

Yesterday was the big visit up at VCU Medical Center. It took us about an hour and a half to get there. Pulling into the parking lot was very emotional for me. I choked back tears and tried to smile. But when you see a sign with the word "cancer" in it, it's hard not to feel those overwhelming feelings of worry! When we stepped foot into this place, I don't think I've ever been greeted by a more caring and compassionate group of workers, nurses and doctors. As we sat in the waiting room, the tunes from a keyboard came pouring out from one of the other waiting rooms. We peeked around the corner to see a smiling man sitting to the side with a huge keyboard and he was happily bouncing his head as he played. My girls had the biggest smiles on their faces and that actually caused me to smile. How wonderful this was! Here is a man volunteering to sit in a waiting room to play some upbeat happy tunes to take just a bit of the edge off about being there. Worked for me!

So we get called back by a wonderful nurse. She joked and smiled as Kacey told her what was going on. She assured us Dr. D would be in soon and she left out. About 5 minutes later, a knock and then in walked one of the cutest smiling docs I'd ever seen! He took Kacey's hand in his and said "Well, you must be Kacey". I think if she could have fallen off the table she would have! He introduced himself to her and then had her introduce all of us. He didn't start his conversation with "Why are you here?" or "What's wrong with your arm?" He started it with "So how has your summer been? Done anything fun? Are you ready for school? What grade are you going into? Are you an Honor student?" The last question made me giggle because she answered "I get A's and B's" and he said "Do your parents punish you for those B's?" and she got this shocked look on her face and she said "No they don't but they don't want me getting a C" and he says "Well, remind me to have a talk with them after this because you need all the A's you can get!" and then we all laughed! Talk about taking some edge off...wowwwww! So then he started moving her arm around, asking her questions about it and then pulled up her MRI results and Xrays. It was definately visable and he said he wanted to make sure it was what he thought it was so he asked us to excuse him so he could consult with his Radiologist, who happens to be one of the best in the state of VA. (wow! I heard he was the best Ped Ortho Oncologist too!) So about 10 minutes later, he came back and said it was exactly what he thought it was. Benign Osteoid Osteoma. All I heard was the word BENIGN! He said it is not what the other doctor thought it was and he wrote it down on a piece of paper and told me to google it. WHAT?!?! Good grief...I did that with what they thought it was and ended up reading all about cancer. And now hes telling me I can go read about it?!? He went on to pull the MRI back up and show us what it was. He said it's a tumor growing on her bone and the bicep tendon that runs right beside it is rubbing against it and thats what causing her pain. He wanted to be 100% sure that was what it was though so he wanted her to have a CT scan done. Great! More weeks of waiting! So I explained that we drove 1.5 hours to get there and making the trips were costly for us. He told me to sit tight for a second. The nurse came back in and asked us to come with her because he'd gone back to Radiology and told them Kacey needed a CT scan done STAT. Wowwwww!! Within 20 minutes, she was in CT scan and then while she was in there Dr. D called them and told them he could NOT wait for the results, he needed those STAT as well! I wanted to cry! Here was a doc pulling strings to save us from having to travel and pay additional co-pays! About 30 minutes later, we were called back to review the CT scan. He pulled it up and showed us where the tumor was hulling away the bone. Only option....surgery! Kacey started to cry and he explained that it was a tiny incesion in the top of her arm. He'd make sure she was completely comfortable before he started. He will go in and scrape out the tumor and some of the bone to make sure he gets it all. There is a 10-15% chance this will come back but he said he's going to do his best to make sure he gets it all. It is a day surgery but you know that when you throw diabetes in the mix there is always a possibility of more crap. So he's preparing us for overnight, just in case. He will call me when surgery gets closer to discuss the plan of action diabetes wise...pump, eating, ect. He is going to try and make her first on the list for 2 reasons...1 shes diabetic and 2 shes one of the youngest on schedule that day. So he took Kacey's hand again and told her he promised she would be back to new soon. Once the tumor is out, she will be able to stretch her arm back out without pain. Her surgery is scheduled for Sept 16th. It is a Thurs and he said she should be well enough to go back to school by Tues if she's up to it. You never know the monkey wrenches we will get afterward with diabetes so we will have to take it day by day. Once he left out, the tears rolled. Can you say RELIEF? Sure I know surgery is still going to make me nervous but knowing that this is something we can take out and she will be fine....makes me breathe a little bit easier!

Just knowing she is in good hands helps me rest a bit more. Her doc is 36 years old and it's obvious he loves his job! He's not stuck in old ways like those older doctors are and its nice to have an official diagnosis.