Setting Records…

Carter sipping some apple juice after the MRI

Post MRI cuddle from Mom

Carter devours a popsicle

Waiting game...

Carter was trying to set a record yesterday for how many hospitals he can be admitted to in one day. Our final outcome…three!

The day started out very early as we headed out the door for UCLA at 7am. We made great timing and arrived at the hospital at 8:15am. As we checked into the MRI area and told them we were about 45 minutes early, they told us we were pushed back by an emergency MRI. However, they wanted to get us started on our check-in. We ended up waiting in this tiny MRI waiting room for about 4 hours with Carter. We were all so exhausted by the time they were ready to administer anesthesia to Carter at noon. And Carter was so hungry. He hadn’t been able to eat or drink anything since the night before. Finally, he wants something to eat and we can’t give it to him. So frustrating! They needed to put a breathing tube into Carter during the MRI. The doctors needed his diaphragm completely still as they took pictures of his liver and abdomen. So, they would be turning off the ventilator for 10-15 seconds to hold Carter’s breath for him, and they’d do this about 40 times throughout the hour long MRI. It sounded scary, so I was pretty upset as they wheeled him off.

The MRI was successfully completed and Carter woke up around 3pm. Then, we had to race over to the medical building next door to the main hospital to try and meet with the surgeons. We had been in contact with them all day, but didn’t know if we’d be able to see anyone now with the delay. Luckily, we got to meet with one of the surgeons and he had already had an opportunity to look at the scan images. He allowed us to go through them all with him and ask a lot of questions. The good news…Carter’s tumor is NOT in the blood vessels going into his liver! Yeah! Another victory! He showed us the extent of Carter’s tumor, which encompasses over 90% of his left lobe and a portion of the right side. Even with this extensive size, a resection would not be ruled out. They would like to do three rounds of chemo (so, two more to go), then do another MRI. At that point, they are hoping they can make a decision about doing a resection to remove the tumor or planning to do a transplant. We asked if either is more favorable than the other. He said whichever one can get rid of the cancer. Obviously, a transplant is more complicated, but they both have similar success rates. We were told the NICU at UCLA right now has 4 children currently recovering from liver transplants. It’s a relief to know they are so experienced with these procedures.

Finally, we got to get back on the road to go home around 5pm. Carter was so hungry and ate peanut butter crackers, donut holes and Pirate’s Booty on the ride home. When we were about 20 minutes from home, Carter started getting irritable. We thought he was just exhausted. After being home for about 20 minutes, Carter seemed warm and we took his temperature. He had a fever which was right on the border of being monitored before we called the doctor and going straight to the ER. After talking to my friend, Kristen, and retaking Carter’s temperature throughout the hour, we decided to call the oncologist. He said because of everything Carter went through that day, he was at increased chance of infection. He wanted to admit us to CHOC, but the oncology floor was full. We needed to go to St. Joseph’s ER (hospital attached to CHOC via an underground tunnel) and wait for a bed to become available at CHOC. The oncologist called ahead and said an oncology patient was coming into the ER. While Carter and Matt waited in the car, I ran in to tell them we were there. Carter was immediately seen and they began an antibiotic in case he had an infection. A bed was finally available at CHOC at midnight. Coincidentally, it’s our old room. Matt and I kind of feel like we never left! However, we did have a nice 9 days at home. Carter’s due to start his second round of chemo tomorrow, so we were going to be coming back to CHOC anyway. Better to be safe than sorry, but it made for a long, stressful and emotional day!