Feb. 11th
Since September Xander's elbow has
been giving him random pain. Some times it will hurt for only a day or two. Some times as long as a
week. Every time we make a Dr. visit the pain goes away, and the Dr. agrees its a waste to bring
him in. His Sensei and I have talked and thought it could be just an over extension of his joint when he does Down Blocks
and he just needs to be careful. Yesterday Xander took a minor fall on his skate board. He was
wearing all the needed pads and helmet, but he had imediate shooting pain in the elbow. Today we took him to his Dr. They have a new Dr in the clinic, and she schedualed X-rays.
When the X-rays came back she said it was a old fracture that is most of the way healed. Give it
a couple of weeks and he would be good as new. When I argued that the random
pain had been there for 5 months I was told this must be a diffrent issue, and not to worry.
Feb. 13th
Over the weekend Xander's elbow has grown worse. His Dr. still
thinks we should wait, but I pushed for some kind of action. The sent us over to NW Orthopedics. The Dr there schedualed a
MRI for Xander. He will have to take a drug to sedate him, but that should make the process more peaceful for Xander.
Feb 15th
NW Orthopedics called me in this moring to discuss the MRI
results. They didn't wait for a standard apt. which had me scared to begin with. When I got there the Dr. said the MRI results had been read, and the
most likely cause of the abnormality was Luekemia. We haven't
had that much contact with Luekemia before and on TV people
DIE. Yes I freaked out. At least as far as you can with Xander in
the room as well. He has no clue, and as far as we are concerned a 5 year old doesn't need a clue. He still thinks that skate
boarding caused all of this. The NW Orthopedics Dr has already schedualed
a Apt. at Doernbecher Children's Hospital in Portland. This quick
rush is even more scary. How dangerous is this that they have to
see us tomorrow. I told Wayne and I think he is more freaked out then I am. Everyone
keeps crying when Xander isn't around.
Feb 14th.
The Doernbecher Dr wanted to see us because most parents freak
out when they hear the word Lukemia. Duh, anyways his radiologist has looked at the MRI and they don't think its Luekmia.
Its more likely a
Ewings Sarcoma (tumer in Xander's bone) It doesn't look like
the cancer is anywere else right now. They are contacting the premier
pediatric tumer surgeon in the NW to do a bone biopsy (cut open Xander's
are and bone to remove a sample) to determine what cancer we are
looking at. It is cancer. No one has any doubts at this point. If
it is a Ewing Sarcome we are looking at months of chemo, and they
would remove the portion of bone the cancer has affected. Xander
would get a titanium replacement bone. If the cancer has spread
to soft tissue he would loose his arm. Can you imagine your 5 year
old loosing their arm.
Feb. 20th,
We met with the Shriner's Hospital Dr that is doing the bone
biopsy on Xander's arm this week. He agrees with Dr. Hsu and Dr. Lampkin that in a week or two we will know what is going
on with Xander's arm. He will have to spend the night in the Hospital. Wayne's boss is giving us a couple of days off to deal
with the surgery. Poor Xander is so young he has no clue what he is facing. They say they will go into his arm just above
the elbow making a small opening into his bone. They can't just suck out all the cancer since the risk of infecting his soft
tissue with the cancer is to great until they know what is going on for sure.
Feb 24th,
Comming to Shriner's today was terifying. We had to leave Xander
in the pre op. room with his anesthesiologist and the Dr. The Nurse gave him a beany baby on the way to his operation, and
he got a stuffed gieraffe on the way in the building. We are spent the surgery sitting in the Caffeteria trying to eat what
might have been good food. It just tasted like cardboard at that point. We know we wont leave Xander for hours after surgery
so we needed to eat then.
Feb 24 later,
We met Xander in recovery waiting for him to wake up. Its horrible,
you should see the poor little guy. The cut on his arm is about 4 inches long. When we got to our room it was "ok" after a
bit though the pain his. Also they gave him Versed before surgery to relax him, but after surgery it sometimes makes kids
hyper and beligerant. The poor guy is feeling horrible and
pretty cranky.
Feb. 24 later still.
Xander is perked up. Hooked to IV and bandaged up
Xander went up to the play room tonight. He learned how to
play ping pong, air hocky, and pool. This place is amazing, and I hope we never come back, the poor little guy.
