Our big meeting

Well, we met with the famous Dr. Souweidane today. He was squeezing us in between surgeries, and his first one went long so we sat waiting for an hour and a half. We would have waited all day, we were just happy to get the chance to talk to him. He met our expectations of being a very kind doctor that was really good with Eli. He is fully expecting to put the Omaya port in, so our expectations of Eli possibly not getting an Omaya were pretty much shot down. The best part is that we were able to get a surgery date next week. It’s at the end of the week (Friday), but at least it’s next week! We will need to be there at 5:45am so Eli can have another MRI done that will be used to help guide Dr. Souweidane to the exact spot. He was really quite positive about the whole procedure and didn’t have any real reason for alarm. He said it should be fairly straightforward, would probably be a smaller scar, and Eli should be out of the PICU within 3 days or so. Unlike his abdominal surgeries, brain surgery doesn’t involve cutting through muscles or as many nerves. So he is expecting the recovery to be less traumatic than his other surgeries, which would be really nice. Once they remove “the spot”, they will do a pathology test on it. If it tests positive for Neuroblastoma, we will likely be starting the 8H9 protocol. If it’s not, well, we’ll have to see what it is to know what we’ll do next…

We have some small things to take care of next week like blood tests and such to prepare for surgery day, but otherwise we don’t have much going on! Lacey’s parents (aka GrandparentsExpress) will hopefully arrive with Isaiah on Sunday (midwest weather pending). It will be great having Zay here with us finally!

Last night we went to the Fire Zone, which is the FDNY’s public store and fire safety center. It was a lot of fun and the kids (and adults) learned a lot about fire safety and got the chance to play with some fire fighting equipment. Click the thumbnail for the photo album:

Tonight we went to Central Park to skate at Trump’s Wollman Rink with the Ronald McDonald House. It was a lot of fun and Eli did even better this time than he did at Rockefeller Center! As Lacey said, ice skating in Central Park at night is pretty magical. Also, they have the best hot chocolate in New York, so if you come to the city, Wollman Rink and a cup of hot chocolate there is highly recommended. Plus, it’s not a terribly expensive date, I think the rate for the paying public is $10 plus $6 for skates. I am still uploading a pic or two every day to the NYC photo album at http://photos.hornit.net. Be sure to keep checking on it. Thanks as always to everyone for praying and for leaving us messages here and on Facebook that you are doing so. Also, thanks to everyone that sent Eli birthday cards to New York, he enjoyed that. I don’t know when I’ll post again since it will be pretty quiet here (medical wise) until next Friday.