Exhausting Day, Amazing Friends

I started making phone calls a little after 7am this morning...trying to get some answers...I was still on the phone at 10:30am when Ken's dad stopped by to drop off a book, and still in my bathrobe because I hadn't gotten a break to get in the shower!

So here's what we know now...it's a pseudo cyst (the doctor at the children's hospital knew what it was immediately when he saw the CT scans). It's a kind of cyst that turns into cancer if not removed. It's whole job is to grow bigger and take over, so the fact that it isn't bigger is really good. It is encapsulated and has not metastasized still, so that is good news. They want to remove it right away.

We have an appointment with the surgeon on April 18th...I have not researched him, but I had a choice of two and seemed to remember this guy's name, so I went with him. I can change if I want to, but it will push the appointment out another couple of weeks as well.

The surgeon will tell us, based on where the pseudo cyst is in the pancreas how we will get it out. They might be able to get to it with the endoscope, if not they will go ahead and do big surgery and take it out. I don't know any details yet, whether it can be laproscopic or whether it's a large incision, front or back, etc, etc. We will also find out whether they can take just the pseudo cyst or if they need to take part of the pancreas. Standard procedure is usually to take the cyst and a portion of the surrounding pancreas, or to divide the pancreas and remove the bottom section (it's carrot shaped). The pancreas will then try to recover and operate as normally as possible...it can turn out that she would be insulin dependent, or enzyme dependent after such a thing, but right now it all sounds so much better than chemo.

After talking with the doctors, nurses, schedulers, registrars, referral people, CT records people, and relaying to Ken (who was napping on the couch by this time), I was so exhausted. Her name was mixed up on the referral, and I had to call back several times to get it all straight...anyone know Daniel S. Aspen?

By that time it was 10:45 and the girls were supposed to be at girl scouts in 15 minutes for a potluck and award ceremony, and I hadn't made it to church to drop off a bulletin insert yet, and I was still in my bathrobe! And that's where friends and family swooped in and picked up the pieces!

My mom called and said I should have asked her to make a potluck dish, I received a bunch of supportive emails, Lauri took care of the bulletin insert, Joni took care of all the badges and patches and planning for the award ceremony, and life just got back on track and kept going! I have awesome friends!!! Cynthia emailed to remind me I'm not in charge of how things go, just how I respond...hmmm....

I'm really a control freak. I am having trouble having my life be so chaotic...those of you who know me well, know that I like life busy, so if I think it's crazy you can imagine just how wacky it is. I'm feeling like I can't keep my obligations because I suddenly have to spend 3 hours on the phone to take care Aspen, and letting people help...I'm really not used to that. I promised Amy that if we needed anything we would call. I don't know how crazy things have to get before I will call, but I obviously need to work on that and think about when that is.

So, Aspen is good with the children's hospital and surgery as long as she can ride the tram up the hill a few times. She's not worried about being cut open, just the IV, she doesn't like needles. She did ask if she could be asleep for the surgery though, she thought it might be a little freaky to be awake. She's one tough kid.

The girls had a wonderful ceremony and potluck! All the dishes at the potluck were things that Aspen could eat, people were so nice to cook bizarre food they wouldn't normally (thank you Joni and Meredith)! Cierra earned 23 badges, and Aspen earned 22 this year so far. Last year their big goal was cookie sales, this year their goal is to earn every award you can earn at the junior level of scouting. They are well on their way!