Diagnosis

When Jaycee was about a month old I noticed that she was a little bigger on the left side of her body. I decided to Google what may cause that to happen and found something called hemihypertrophy (you can find more information about this by clicking the link to the right).  I started to show a few people to get their opinion and everyone didn't feel like it was a big deal and that I was over reacting.  We went to see our family doctor and he could tell she was slightly bigger on the left side but said he would keep a eye on her.  He didn't see a reason to do anything else at that time.   I still didn't feel good about it, my motherly instinct told me there was more to it.  I came across a Facebook friend that has been dealing with Hemihypertrophy with her son.  I started talking to her and she referred me to her pediatrician so that I could get a second opinion.  I was able to get an appointment within a couple days.  Dr. Paxton took a look at her and he suspected that she had Hemihypertophy.  Those that are diagnosed with this are not only dealing with one side of their body growing larger than the other but they are also at a higher risk of developing tumors, especially in the liver and kidneys.  Regular ultra sounds and check ups are necessary to monitor this.

Dr. Paxton ordered an ultra sound at primary's and it was scheduled for December 9 2013 this was the day that changed everything.

During the ultra sound they found a mass on Jaycee's liver.   They could not identify exactly what it was so they had to send us for a MRI the following day to see if they could figure out what this lesion was.

December 10 2013 we were back to PCMC to get a MRI of her abdomen.  It was a LONG day waiting for results and setting in the recovery room watching poor little Jaycee come out of anesthesia.  Also it was NOT the way we wanted to spend Angie's birthday.  After about 8 hours in the recovery room we started having doctor after doctor come in to talk to us.  We received the news that no parent every wants to hear.  The team of radiologist, oncologist, and surgeons reviewed the results of the blood work, ultra sound, and MRI and all signs were pointing to this mass being Hepatoblastoma.  Hepatoblastoma is a cancerous tumor on the liver which is one of the most commonly  seen with Hemihypertrophy.  Meeting with all these doctors was difficult and it was hard to take it all in.  It all almost didn't seem real.  They wanted to do a biopsy of the tumor before they started any treatments just to confirm everything.  We were told that chemo therapy and at least one surgery was going to be necessary to hopefully get rid of this tumor.  The tumor is in a difficult spot to remove because it is setting along some major blood vessels in the liver. The surgeons told us the severity or difficulty of removing it was categorized by pretext 1 through pretext 4 ( pretext 1 is the least severe to pretext 4 being the worst).  Jaycee's tumor is a pretext 3 because of the location and size.  We met with Dr. Skarda who is the surgeon that will be doing the operation when that time comes around.  Dr. Barnette is the oncologist that will be seeing Jaycee through this whole journey and he is recommending chemo therapy before any surgery is done.  By doing this it will increase the chances of getting all the tumor out and not leaving anything behind.  We were given so much information this day and it was very overwhelming!  They scheduled us to come back for the biopsy in two days because they wanted to get a start on this right away.

December 12 2013.  Today was time to do the biopsy.  The doctors were so sure that they knew what they were dealing with so they did not have to do a surgical biopsy.  They were able to use a less invasive way to do it by poking a long needle in her abdomen and getting core samples of the tumor.  They admitted us after the procedure to monitor Jaycee's condition and vitals.  It was another difficult day.  We were overwhelmed with a bunch more information.  Today was the day that we were given the overall plan on what the treatment was going to be for little Jaycee.  It was good to hear that there is a pretty good chance of beating this cancer but at the same time it was scary to see all the side effects and things that can go wrong.  We have all the faith and confidence in the world that our doctors will take care of our little angel.  We are scheduled to start chemo therapy on Tuesday December 17th.  The tentative plan goes like this: 2 cycles of chemo therapy to try and shrink the size of the tumor then see if it is where Dr. Skarda feels like it can be removed.  Then we will do 4 more cycles of chemo to try and get the rest.  The whole process should take about 5-6 LONG months.

This is right before they did the biopsy. 

  Since we were admitted this time we had to spend the night and this is the bed we shared, it made for an extremely long night.

We had not seen our boys for a few days because we were busy dealing with everything at primary's so Grandma Troyer, Aunt Amber, and Bronte brought them up to see us.  It was good to hang out with them for a short time and show them that their little sissy was being taken care of and in a safe place.  I think all they cared about was the superman and spider-man statues in the hall though!!

We will try and do an update once a week of how she does with her treatments. Thank you so much for all your love and prayers they are felt and much apprenticed. No child or parent should ever have to go through this but we couldn't do it with out you all!!!