The following is an email that I sent to some close friends and family. It is a summary of how things have been going, and what is ahead....
Piper has been doing well with this latest round of chemo. She managed to make it through the last few weeks without having to be admitted again. For that, we are so grateful! Her counts are all up now, and she is full of energy!!! We had an appointment on Tuesday for a CT Scan. The scan showed exactly what the Dr.'s anticipated. There isn't any way that they can save her right kidney. The tumor is too large, and even with 12 weeks of chemo, it isn't shrinking much. They will, however, be able to save part of her left kidney. There are a few small tumors that remain. There was considerable shrinkage over the past 12 weeks, though. The surgeons think that they will be able to remove the tumors while leaving enough kidney to allow proper function. We pray that he is right!! Her surgery has been scheduled for Wednesday, June 8th. We won't know what time until Tuesday evening. We met with the surgeon (Dr. Henry Rice) this morning. He is the same surgeon that placed Piper's port in March. He is a wonderful person. He actually will sit and talk to you... so unlike the typical surgeon!
He told us that the surgery will take around 4+ hours. They will have to do a very large incision across her entire abdomen. She is going to have a rough road ahead for healing. As soon as surgery is completed, she will be moved to the PICU. Visitors will not be welcomed while she remains in PICU. We hope that she will recover well enough to be moved to a regular room after 2-3 days. They can't tell us how long it will take for her to heal. They can't tell us much else until the surgery has been completed. We choose to put our faith in God. We know that He loves Piper more than we could ever understand. (As a parent, that's so difficult to imagine.) We know that He will take care of her, and that whatever happens will be for His glory. We appreciate the prayers for Piper and our family. Prayer is the greatest gift that anyone can give us right now!
I will try to keep everyone updated as we move through this process. I really don't know what to expect for next week, so we will take it one day at a time.
Also, a lot of you know that we were very concerned with how we were going to care for Emma during this time. We were so blessed recently. A dear friend of ours found us a few qualified individuals on care.com. She set up face to face interviews with a few of them. The first person we met with was a perfect fit for our needs. We hired Molly before she left the interview. Emma loves her!!! Molly is very flexible, and she is able to be here just about anytime to help. She is really good with Emma. Emma informed me the other day that "Molly likes bubbles, chalk and scooters!" (Molly thought that was funny!) She is a good sport, though, and she is taking very good care of our little girl. It is such a blessing to know that Emma will be well taken care of. .... although, I will still miss her dearly!
Again, we appreciate your prayers, your friendship, and the outpouring of love for our family.
