Surgery #2

Emmett had his second surgery today to remove the remaining tumor. (Well, 2nd for the tumor, but 3rd total if you count the line placement) The surgery took place over 4.5 hours and was conducted at Children's Hospital Boston. The surgeon was Dr. Lilly Goumnerova. During our post-op conference she indicated that she was only able to remove ~50% of the remaining tumor without risking nerve damage. She also indicated that the tumor looked like a nerve sheath tumor and nothing like ATRT (essentially the same thing that Dr. Marchand told us at UNM). She wants to have samples sent to more than one pathology lab and says that our current treatment plans are on hold pending conclusive results. (As a side note, we requested a second opinion at UNM and they said "if St Jude says it's ATRT, it's ATRT". I'm glad they're willing to consider other possibilities here at Dana Farber.)

At this point we haven't talked to the oncologist yet...at UNM it was the oncologist that always squashed our hopes. We are cautiously optimistic - however, we thought we were in the clear after Emmett's first surgery and a week later received the ATRT diagnosis.

There's always the potential of discovering it's something worse than ATRT. For now we're still preparing ourselves mentally for ATRT treatment. But we are hoping and praying for a miracle, and hopefully we're one step closer to finding the right treatment plan after today's surgery.

Emmett's doing great - he was smiling tonight for Uncle Cris, he's enjoyed Winnie the Pooh twice since surgery, and is eating like a champ! What an example for the rest of us!

Our hearts go out to all of you for your thoughts, notes, comments, prayers and faith on Emmett's behalf. Thank you so much for your love and support.

-Micah, Katy, and Emmett

Once Emmett found the Child Life room at UNMH, he cried every time the door to the hospital room opened or shut without him being a part of the leaving. He's pretty bright & figured out that BCH must also have a playroom & all he wanted to do was leave the room to walk the halls & play in the Child Life (toy) room. Here he brought the shopping carriage back to the room with Nana.

Cousin Tyson brought him Mom (Aunt Michelle) to come visit. It was in the 80s! so we took advantage of going out to play in the gardens. It's completely enclosed by hospital buildings & libraries, so it's private with no street access. Emmett doesn't normally love a stroller, but he loved this ride...I think because he knew he was kind of getting away with something sitting on the footrest ;)

It was Child Life week & they had some extra fun activities. This was a Candy Land theme activity & you got a teddy bear & could take him around the 'gameboard' & collect stickers & take your bear to the doctors, take his x-ray, take blood, feed him a cookie, etc...

Emmett found a duck in the gardens! Boston Children's was built in the late 1800s & obviously has been added on to & renovated a lot since then, but I'm thinking this little guy might be part of the original gardens or building or something pretty old. They had some preserved statues throughout the gardens. As soon as he saw it, he started squawking his "Wack Wack!!"

The landing pad for the Life Flight was right above the gardens also & the first time we went out, it happened to be taking off, which Emmett found fascinating. Every other time we went out, he'd look up trying to find the helicopter.

Going for a stroll in the gardens with Nana. We realized that you aren't supposed to walk on the grass, which was kind of sad because that makes the gardens more of just a hot spot for all the staff to eat lunch and not really a place for kids to play as much, but it was still nice to be outside.

Cousin Tyson is a good runner, just like his Mom & Dad!

A friend was so thoughtful & made us dinner one night. Cris brought it down to us & it was still so warm outside in the evening that we ate outside on the garden patio.

A favorite-being chased by Uncle Cris after dinner!