Biopsy: Part 2

Today Casey and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 5:30 to get ready for another long day at the hospital. We got there at 7 for our appointment, but due to some mix up on their end we didn't get going until about 8:30. Most of the trips to the doctor consist of us comforting Tessa about the fact that she either will or won't be "getting a needle" again that day. Luckily today we weren't anticipating any needles (while she was awake). She was a trooper as usual and did a great job with all the blood pressure, temperature taking, and gas masking. Because of the difficulty that the doctor had had getting to the liquid marrow on Monday, they were preparing for an extra entry point-the two points on the back of her hips where they entered last time, plus one entry point on the front of her hip. What was a 20 minute procedure last time took an hour this time.

When we got to the recovery to wait with Tessa until she woke up from the sedation the doctor (head of Pediatric Oncology performed the biopsy this time) came by. He said that he still had been unable to get to the liquid marrow, and he had really been pushing hard (his exact words were "it was a real workout", which just made my heart ache for baby girls' body). He was able to get some good core samples though (solids of the marrow). He walked us through some of her lab work from the previous day, explaining that her blood counts looked pretty good, but she is pretty anemic. He showed us how some of the cells in her bone marrow were going gung-ho as though they were fighting something off, and other levels were elevated showing inflammation. So this information paired with the unusual density of her bones was enough to show that there is something wrong, but again they're not sure what. Um, ok.

The lab results came back from today's blood work with some scary numbers, so they decided to take another sample while Tessa was still asleep so they could double check the levels. While they were attempting to take another sample through her IV, the line blew flooding her little hand with saline. The pain woke her up, which meant that we were going to have to do another blood draw while she was awake. Sigh, it is Friday the 13th though isn't it. We got through it fine and the levels came back fine (relatively speaking).

The results from this biopsy won't be back before Tuesday, so we are heading home for the weekend. We are looking forward to sleeping in our own beds and watering our undoubtedly dead houseplants (good thing there's only a couple).

This afternoon we all took a long nap together and had a quiet evening at the ever-generous Noni and Papa's house.

Thanks to everyone for their ongoing support, loving messages, cards and gifts for Tessa. We are very grateful for your prayers and love.