More MD Friends!

We had even more of our neighbors visit us last week! The Butehorns drove to vacation on Anna Maria Island and came over for a cookout with the Albanos! It was great seeing everyone! I didn't take very many pictures because I thought we'd see them again at the beach and on the boat...but things changed overnight!

Cathy and Matt Butehorn

Trish and Brian Albano

Isabella's Biopsy

Just a few more pictures from our weekend at All Children's Hospital. These are from Isabella's biopsy...she was so brave and all smiles! I love how she really has good thoughts associated with being there and isn't worried at all about going back. Don't I look lovely after over 24 hours in the hospital with no shower and a night slept on a pull out chair? As of 7:00 this evening, still haven't heard any pathology results. She had a great day at school and things are going on as normal as possible! I've been trying to decide if I'm so calm because I'm in total denial or because I'm covered in prayer! I like to think it's the prayer!

Isabella...Sunday Afternoon

Isabella was discharged this afternoon and was able to spend at least part of Easter at home! Her pathology results won't be in till Monday or Tuesday and the Tumor Board meets Wednesday or Thursday so her doctor thought she'd be much happier at home! The pathology results will determine the next step...best case scenario is surgery to remove the tumor and probably follow up surgeries to repair the vertebrae. Worst case scenario would be radiotion and/or chemo...keep praying!
Isabella is none the worse for wear and almost enjoyed her vacation at the hospital! She came home with at least 6 new stuffed animals from the staff, several craft projects, an Easter basket, a visit from the Easter bunny himself on Saturday, meals in bed ordered on demand from their "room service", which had an amazingly HUGE kid friendly menu!

My first inclination when we heard spinal tumor was to hop on a plane and go to Hopkins...but I've heard wonderful things about All Childrens Hospital and so far they're all true. Their staff is specially trained to work with children and present things in a kid friendly way so that the whole experience is associated with good feelings instead of scary. We were encouraged to tell Isabella that she has a bunch of cells that decided to hang out in a place where they don't belong and yesterday the doctors went in to find out why they were there. They're doing a test to find out what kind of cells they are and then they'll take them out so she won't have any more back pain. Think it was a coincidence that Isabella's class just finished a unit on The Body?
For now, we're back to life as usual and enjoying the time with Chelsea home from California this week, which was also part of God's wonderful plan to help us out with taking care of the boys while we go back and forth to St. Pete. Chelsea and Isabella just left to go see the Hannah Montana movie and we're planning on playing hookie from school on Wednesday to have an all girl day!
Again, your thoughts and prayers are so greatly appreciated!

Isabella and her roommate, Kandis (who also got to go home today!) in their Easter outfits!

Who doesn't love a twirly skirt??

Isabella...

Wow...where to begin? Isabella has been having back pain for a few months now, off and on, which I thought was probably just growing pains. But when the pain started to wake her up at night and moved into her leg, we went to the pediatrician to try to figure out what's going on. About three weeks ago, she had a renal ultrasound to rule out any kidney problems and those came back negative and so did the urine tests. Our next stop was the orthopedic doctor on Tuesday, who suspected some scoliosis, but assured us that scoliosis doesn't usually cause pain. Her hamstrings, heel cords and back muscles were really tight and she was only able to bend about twenty degrees at her waist. He did some xrays and recommended that we start physical therapy this week and go to All Childrens Hospital in St. Petersburg for a neurology consult and possible MRI. I tried to get an appt at All Childrens, but was having trouble getting through and by Friday morning, after several sleepless nights for her and countless bottles of Ibuprofen, we decided to just take her directly to the ER at All Childrens. They did the MRI late on Friday and they found a large mass along her spine that stretches from her L1 to L3 vertebrae. It's attached to the bone and deteriorating it, as well as causing injury to the nerves and causing some curvature. On the one hand, we were relieved to solve the mystery of her pain, but on the other hand, it's not news any parent wants to hear.
Yesterday she had a needle biopsy of the mass, and the preliminary tests show that it is benign, which is great news! We have to wait till Monday or Tuesday to get the full results. In any event, she'll need surgery to have the mass removed and possibly more surgeries to repair the bones as she grows. We're waiting for the doctor to make rounds this morning...hopefully they'll let us go home to wait for the results and a surgery date.
I'll try to update the blog when I can and maybe even start a Caring Bridge site. In the meantime, your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated! We know God is in control and had this all planned out before Isabella was even born...pray that we trust his will!

At the ER on

Isabella and her buddy, Jonathon, who made getting the IV A LOT easier!

Best Friends

Haven't shared any cute doggie pictures lately so Evan took these yesterday! Getting Gracie was the best thing we ever did for the Coopster! These two are inseperable!

MD Friends!

Me and Trish

Evan, Lauren, Mikayla (a beach friend), Isabella, Jonah, Matt and Nick

Some of our friends from MD have headed south to Florida for their spring break and fortunately they're vacationing right near us! The Albanos are staying on Anna Maria Island this week so we spent part of Monday at the beach with them enjoying some awesome waves! The weather on Tuesday was pretty chilly, so Matt, Nick and Lauren spent the day at our house swimming and hanging out! The kids all picked up right where they left off!

Universal!

Bruce took the boys to Universal Studios in Orlando for the day (courtesy of some free and discounted tix we got in the mail!) They had a great time, despite the rain, covering the entire park!

After a busy day at the park, they had dinner at the Hard Rock before coming home