The Next Step

Tonight as I sit here right now, I find myself in a state of disbelief that this is all really happening right now. Anthony is asleep. The house is quiet.... too quiet.

Back track to 3pm-ish:
Denny and I made it into the city and to UCSF with tons of time to spare. We got our parking spot and headed in. For those of you who have never been, it's HUGE!!! I mean HUGE. We walked all over the place getting acquainted. (by accident because we got a tad bit lost. Oops) We arrived at Dr. Gupta's office about 30 mins early. The front desk girl who scheduled us this morning was lovely and kind. 

They led us back into a little exam room and we waited to see the doc. It only took a few mins and he entered with a smile. First impression: What a NICE man. He sat down and went over the thoughts he had after reviewing her MRI report and disc. He does have a good idea of what he wants to do for treatment but won't be sure until after more tests are run. He also said that she has some swelling due to the extra fluid around her brain right now. He didn't feel comfortable letting her go home because of it and told us we would be admitting her after our visit. We told him we were ready and had her suit case in the car. We had a feeling!

 The ESTIMATED date for surgery will *most likely* be Wednesday or Thursday. He has a lot of tests to do and won't know anything until they are run. That brings me to the next update. The plan is to do some very early tests in the morning including a sedated 3D MRI. That way they get a very still and accurate picture of exactly what he is looking at. If all goes well after surgery and she doesn't need too much physical therapy, we are looking at a week of recovery time after surgery spent in the hospital. If she isn't recovering as fast as she needs to, she stays longer. If the biopsy comes back and isn't benign and more procedures are needed, she stays longer. It all really depends.

So, Denny & I walked our little girl over to pediatric admitting and checked her in. Unfortunately the rooms are packed right now but that should change soon. For now, she is sharing a room with 4 other patients (and their parents). So, that's at least 8 people in her room and 4 TV's. Denny is going to take the fold out AWESOME bed (haha... riiiight) next to her and try and get some zzzz's tonight. She had a quick visit from one of the docs who is on Dr. G's team. He did some tests with her and asked all the same questions again. They sure are thorough there. I love it! I took some cute pics! I will attach them onto this post.

To those of you who are wanting to visit or come during surgery. I can tell you this now. They are very strict about visitors (especially before surgery). They want to keep her at the lowest risk possible for infection. For now they are strongly suggesting that only Denny and I be there.  I can tell you that the room they are in for now is so packed, I was in the way!  So, I will keep doing the blog and taking pictures. I will update as much as I can. For now, I am going to go finish packing a bag for Denny. I kept telling him all day he should be packing. Mommy's intuition. For now they are stocked on lots of books and crafts and crossword puzzles. They do have internet access. Oh and Den says that there is even a play station hooked up to each TV! They will have lots to do to pass the time. I will be there as early as I can be in the morning and update the blog when I can!
(and I finally figured out this picture thing!!) Ps. we are good on food. Anthony has an army of people wanting to help. We are so grateful to all of you who are in our lives. THANK YOU!!!!!!

She LOVES the bed. She wants this bed at home. Craft-Matic adjustable???

Dr. G's colleague doing more tests

She likes this hospital already!

Good night everyone.......... zzzzzzz