Surgery

Surgery is a go...first thing Friday morning (tomorrow). Xavian's ANC was 2082 this morning! Yesterday it was 736. Thanks for all those prayers...they worked! His platelet count is 45. So, he is getting platelets right now and will get some more tonight at 10. They will check his counts in the middle of the night to see if he has held on to the platelets and then will decide if he needs more before surgery. We are really ready to get this surgery done so that the pressure can be relieved and Xavian will be more comfortable.

Dr. Rozelle explained to me this morning that the catheter will be placed on the right side of Xavian's head (where he had previous surgery to remove the tumor). It will then go down behind his ear and down to his stomach. There, the fluid will be absorbed. He is at greater risk of infection. I don't like to use statistics because my son is not a number...but, he said his chances are 1 in 10 in getting infection because of the chemo he has gotten. If Xavian gets an infection they will have to go back in, remove the shunt, place an external drain, give him antibiotics and then replace the shunt after the infection is cleared. This would be anywhere from 7 to 10 days (all in the hospital of course). He said with babies (especially those on chemo) are more likely to have more surgeries months or years after the first procedure. This can continue up to two years.

Most kids can go home 24 hours after this kind of procedure but we aren't sure what will happen with Xavian. Talking to our hem/onc doctors we will be here through the weekend. They will also place the TP tube back so that we can get him off TPN and get his nutrition back to where it needs to be.

We still are not sure what caused the obstruction in the fluid draining. The surgeon will take some of the fluid and send it to be tested to make sure no tumor cells have developed. The other reason is that the cyst could have caused everything to shift over and obstruct the pathway. Praying for the later.

Tomorrow will be a month since we've been here. The first week Xavian had his third round of chemo. We went home for 1.5 days. Since then we've been here dealing with low counts and hydrocephalus. Praying we can go home next week.

Immediate prayer request
1. Smooth surgery tomorrow
2. Knowledge and skill for those taking care of Xavian
3. Smooth recovery, no complications (ie: infection)
4. No new tumor cells
5. Cure for childhood cancer