953-_ _ _ _

After Ella's day yesterday, we all came home tired so we rested, gathered our thoughts and came down from the anxiety high we had been on all day.  The kids wanted some "kid champaign" (aka sparkling grape juice) for wine time with grandma.  Jon and I wanted to go furniture shopping..... SO grandma stayed with the kids and had wine with them on the dock while Jon and I left on a date to go furniture shopping and dinner.

Before we even got off base the phone rang 953-2somthing....Dr. Fox.  after the initial "hi how are yous" It went something like this:

"Myself, Dr. Carter, Dr. (what's his name who is the adult urologist at Naval), and Dr. Restaino, all looked at Ella's MRI and it doesn't look like any malignancies any of us have ever seen.  I think that is a good thing.  I even sent it up to 4 of my colleagues in Pittsburgh that I studied under and they too have never seen anything like it.  This is good, but also doesn't tell us what it is, and doesn't mean it isn't malignant.  So my question for you is has Ella ever had any trauma to her kidney, falls, kicks, etc that you can think of?  (no) What about exposure to tuberculosis or other high fevers etc.....(not that I know of and can remember except 1 around age 3 which was 104.5 and I took her into the ER, didn't last long) Does she take naps?  (no)  So the next thing is as you know, on Thursday my team of colleagues in the area have agreed to look at Ella's images and we will gather their input.  We won't have a conclusion or timeline until next week when blood work comes back along with urine sample, both of which I'm expecting to be normal.  When we have all the input, we will determine our game plan.  By the looks of the MRI we may not have to go in as invasively as we thought and may be able to go in laproscopicly for the biopsy and if we have to change our plan during surgery we will be ready to do that.  It is still looking like the only way to know what it is, is to go in, and we have to do that in case it is something infectious, or malignant.  In the mean time, call me if she has any mysterious fevers or feels bad."

I'm so glad she called and let us know what they are thinking now rather than waiting until next week.  I'm still nervous.  But the initial "It's not any malignancy that any of us have ever seen" is glued to the hope I find in Ella not being sick or showing symptoms of anything being wrong.  She too has a 7 year old and completely understands we are anxious.

Thanks for the continued prayers!  We are getting closer to answers.

11 more days until my due date "operation get this baby out" is about to get serious.

Love,
Em