From the begining

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Andrew had a slight fever this evening.
He had this happen a couple of times in the last few months.
Without a worried thought we put him to bed.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

When Teresa went to wake Andrew up in the morning he did not feel good, he was still fevered and was very sleepy. She let him sleep and told him she would take him to school late. Two hours later he came and found Teresa. He was still fevered and complaining of a pain in his right shoulder. Teresa thought no big deal she would just watch him for a few hours and see if the pain would go away. By early afternoon he was in a lot of pain in his shoulder so she made an appointment at the Dr’s office, thinking he had something wrong with his collar bone. She said she would feel like an idiot Mom if he had hurt his collar bone and she did not take him in. Dr Taylor was out of town so we saw his PA Dr Wes. At 1:00 they went in to see Dr Wes. After finding just a fever and pain in his right shoulder they were all baffled as to what might be wrong. Upon questioning Andrew it was determined that the pain was only there when he breathed. Dr Wes decided to do a chest x-ray to make sure he did not have a collapsed lung. Upon examining the x-ray his chest was great, but they were still baffled why he would have pain in his right shoulder when he breathed. So Dr Wes had a couple of blood tests ordered just to make sure things were ok. Teresa still feeling nothing was wrong took Andrew home.

Friday, August 30, 2007

Teresa woke Andrew up to go to school. He still had fever and the pain had moved to his right side. Teresa kept him home from school, knowing that Dr Wes would be calling about the blood tests. When Dr Wes called about 1:00 to check on Andrew, Teresa told him the pain had moved down into his right side and wondered if it could be appendicitis? Dr Wes said maybe but I would like to see you back in our office as soon as you can get here, because the blood tests came back not quite right. Teresa and Andrew got to the Dr Office about 3:00 on Friday. When they got there Dr Wes said he would like to do a CT scan just to make sure there was not a blood clot around his right lung. After reviewing the CT scan of his chest, they noticed something a little farther down. Now they wanted to do a CT scan of his lower abdomen. Andrew had to drink the drink to color the organs so they could get a good picture of what was going on. In the meantime Andrew was putting up a fuss because Dr Wes wanted more blood tests. We were able to coerce him into getting his blood test drawn by giving him a dollar to get a treat out of the vending machine. He bought the treat and then was told he couldn’t eat it until after the scan. At this time Dad arrived and began a battle of the wills about drinking the drink so we could have the scan done. A battle of which Andrew won and only drank 1.5 of the 3 glasses he was supposed to drink. Andrew had to have an IV which did not work out well due to the other IV earlier, all the poking and Andrew was dehydrated. This became a bad experience for all involved. A Pizza was promised because he was starving and it was close to 8:00pm by now. Dad left to get the pizza and meet us at home. Mom and Andrew stayed to get the results. After 15 minutes the technician started calling to check where the results were. After 45 minutes Dr Wes came in and sat down and told Andrew that he had baffled two radiologists and a Dr. They knew he had a very enlarged liver and spleen and they felt there was a blockage someplace. Dr Wes had spoken to a Dr at Primary Children’s and they decided that Andrew should go down so they could check and make sure that it was not a blood clot. Teresa asked tonight?? Dr Wes said the liver is not something you want to mess with. Teresa said can’t we wait until tomorrow morning?? Upon which he said no you should go down just to make sure. She came home to inform Dan they had to go to Primary Children’s that night. They vacillated back and forth about if they should both go or just one should go. Teresa had Dan feed Andrew while she showered not knowing what to expect down there. As she went up to have a shower she leaned over the railing and said check to see whose lights are on we should probably give Andrew a blessing. Alan Gehring came to help give Andrew a blessing. When Teresa came down Dan said he was going also, upon asking him why, He said he felt like they should both be there. They drove to Primary Children’s and got there at about 11:30 pm. When they went to the main part of the hospital they were told that anyone arriving late had to check in through the ER. We found the ER and checked in and sat in the writing room for three hours. It was almost three in the morning when Teresa told the nurse that they thought that someone would be expecting Andrew, and she felt the entire process they had done wrong and they were going to go home and come back tomorrow. The nurse said you are not going anywhere Andrew is next and you will have a room shortly. Fifteen minutes later she called our name, upon which we were taken to a room in the ER. Fifteen minutes later a nurse came in and took his vitals and let us know a Dr would be in as soon as possible. About 40 minutes later the emergency room Dr came in and asked us what was wrong with Andrew. We told her that there should be information here and she said that doesn’t matter she needs to go over it gain. We explained the last two days and she said alright and took the results from all of the tests that we brought from Heber and said she would get back to us. 30 minutes later she let us know that they had picked up something on the scans we brought with us and she had called a team in to look at it more closely. At 6:30 in the morning the doctor came in to inform us that Andrew does have a blood clot in the artery between the spleen and the liver and also that there was a tumor on his liver. We were shocked and very tired having no sleep up to this point and so Teresa wanting to make sure she heard correctly asked the doctor on a scale of one to ten how serious this is. She said this is very serious and then she informed us that we would be admitted to a room upstairs and he would have a biopsy later that day and that he would probably be in surgery all day that Tuesday. She asked if there was anything she could do, said she was sorry and left. We shed some tears and five minutes later a social worker walked in to see if we were okay and make sure we didn’t have any questions. Half an hour later the nurse led us up to the fourth floor of primary children’s and told us that the surgery team would be in to meet with us. We were told that we were fortunate that doctor Rebecca Meyers the top liver specialist would be in charge of the surgery and is very good (she is the one who separated the conjoined twins liver). We got settled in and saw many different doctors and told our story many different times in the early afternoon. One of the doctors on Doctor Meyers’ team came in to let us know that Andrew had been denied surgery because they had found too many tumors on his liver and they could not remove all of them or he wouldn’t have much of a liver left and you have to have some liver to survive. We were very shocked at this time and realized the seriousness of our son’s condition. We then met with Dr. Barnett who is an oncologist at Primary Children’s hospital. Dan and I weren’t really sure what an oncologist really was until we asked and found out it is someone who deals with patients with cancer. After that we were told we could go home because nobody was brave enough to do a biopsy today because of the holiday weekend and they were short staffed. We scheduled to have his biopsy done on Tuesday the 4th of September. Andrew was glad to be going home because he was going to receive the Priesthood on Sunday. He let every doctor he saw there that day know that he was going home to receive the priesthood on Sunday.


Sunday, September 2

Andrew received the priesthood this morning. It was a very emotional Sunday because we received a new Bishopric and they announced to the ward to fast and pray for our son because he has a tumor on his liver.

Monday, September 3

Andrew and I hung out together at home.

Tuesday, September 4

We had to take Andrew down to Primary’s for his biopsy at 10am. We checked in and Andrew was terrified of being poked again. His biggest worry was of being poked and having his blood taken again. So the family life lady came and showed him with her little toys how being poked and taking blood wasn’t too bad. They gave him little green scrubs to put on that looked just like the doctors. We followed the nurse to the biopsy room where we met the radiologist Dr. Faola who explained how the procedure would work. Upon explaining to us I asked him if he had seen Andrew’s scans. Upon which he said yes. So I asked what his opinion was. He told Dan and me that he didn’t think it was cancer at all and that it was Thrombosis, which is a condition that people get when their blood is clotting. Having been told there were a couple veins with blood clots he felt that was what was happening all over his liver- there were a bunch of blood clots. Well, I (Teresa), was elated for the rest of the day thinking that was exactly what my son has. Teresa went on in denial thinking it could be nothing but Thrombosis for the next couple of days. We were told we would find out on Thursday the outcome of the biopsy. We didn’t hear anything on Thursday. Friday doctor Meyers called Teresa at home to tell her they would need to take another biopsy and that this biopsy would be surgical biopsy and be a very dangerous biopsy and that she would also do an exploratory surgery. Upon asking why, the doctor stated that the first biopsy was non-diagnostic because they didn’t get enough to make it an exact conclusion. She told me to get a notebook and pen and she would spell some words for me to write down. DR Meyers told me she felt Andrew had Heptocellular carcinoma which is a type of liver cancer. Upon hearing this, I said, “Oh I was really hoping it wasn’t cancer and that it was this Thrombosis that the radiologist told me.” She said he already has Thrombosis which is just a condition of clotting of the blood. When that happens they ask why it is clotting and they usually find there is a tumor involved. I said “oh are you sure it is cancer” and she said “I could be wrong. People have been known to be wrong” She said for your son’s sake I really hope that it is not this kind of cancer because it is not a very treatable kind of cancer. She told me that the personal nurse would be calling to tell us all the things we needed to do to prepare for the surgery on Tuesday and that after the surgery he would be staying in the hospital for about 5 days.

Sunday, September 9

We fasted and prayed early that all would go well with surgery. Later that evening our new bishopric came by with Bro. Nystul, Bro. Mrdutt and Bro. Riley Wright gave each one of our family members a blessing. They gave Andrew a blessing and sobbed through the whole thing. He sobbed in everyones blessing which is amazing because he never shows much sign of emotion. The blessings were wonderful but no promises of the outcome were made exactly but that the experience would take all of our family’s faith to get through this. He even contacted Alyssa’s bishop and told him of the situation and had her bishop give her a blessing.

Monday, September 10

Andrew went down to have more blood work done and everything ready prior to surgery Tuesday. Andrew had a very hard time going to have his blood work done because he didn’t want to be poked. He told me he would punch them out. I told him it needed to be done to get him better and we would get a treat afterwards. The phlebotomist had a hard time getting his blood out because it would clot the whole time. He had to move the needle around. Andrew was becoming very upset. We finally got the blood out. After that I took him to the cafeteria where he had a hamburger, fries and ice cream.

Tuesday, September 11

We packed up and had to be to Primary’s at 7:30am for surgery. We were half an hour late because we forgot how bad the traffic is on Foothill Blvd. Upon arriving we went up to the second floor where they do surgery and got him checked in. The receptionist told us someone would be there shortly. We waited in the waiting room. After about 15 minutes someone finally came and got Andrew. We checked him into his room and someone came in to take his vitals and prep him for surgery. When she got down the little pajamas for him to put on, he refused because they looked too babyish and wanted the scrubs he had on before. The nurse found him some little scrubs for him to put on again and we were escorted into a little waiting room where DR. Meyers came in to introduce herself and her team and explain what she would be doing. We thanked her and were escorted to a waiting room where there were couches and we could wait for the 3 hour surgery. The anesthesiologist called on the phone in the waiting room to let us know that it had gone well and that they had found tumors. Dr Meyers went ahead and put the pick line in-which is a permanent catheter. She would meet with us in 45 minutes. She actually came an hour later- the time seemed forever. She sat down with us in a little waiting room, gave us a picture of his liver, and showed us where all the cancer was. She drew on a piece of paper words and pictures to help us better understand the things she was about to tell us. She told us that Andrew did have heptocellular carcinoma. She drew an oval shaped picture and put 4 lines on it and told us that our liver was actually divided into four sections with the gall bladder in the middle. She said sections 3 and 4 were completely covered in cancer. Section 2 had 2 tumors the size of nickels. Section 1 had 2 small tumors the size of the top of a pencil eraser. The tumors went through the entire liver and so the only way for him to survive this type of cancer was to have a liver transplant. First he needed to become eligible to have a liver transplant and at this time he is not eligible. There is a tumor at the top of the main artery that feeds into the main liver. She could do a transplant in the part that hooks the liver to this artery but if the tumor grows down into the optional area of the artery he cannot have a transplant. In order for him to become eligible he needs to have chemotherapy to shrink the tumors. They thought that it may have spread to the lymph nodes and they took a biopsy of them also. Those tests show there was no cancer in the first two layers. He will have his first chemo treatment on Monday, September 17. They will be aggressive with the chemo. He will have 2 treatments 21 days apart and then he will go back and have the tests again to determine if the tumors have shrunk. This type of chemo only has a 15-20 percent rate of success with shrinking the tumors. However, this percentage is for adults, as this is a rare form of cancer for children. The hope is that since Andrew is still a child the body will do much better with the chemo and there will be success in this stage of his treatment. At the end of 2 months if the tumors keep growing he will be taken off this type of chemo because they will know that it is not working and he will become a research patient until they find a cure or his Heavenly Father takes him home. Our hearts are heavy knowing that someone will have to lose their life so that our son can continue to live his life. But we feel very positive and hopeful that all will work out according to our Heavenly Father’s plan.

As of Saturday the 15th of September Andrew is recovering very well from the surgery and we start chemo on Monday Morning the 17th. Life in our house will change a little bit with the fact that everyone that comes to see us cannot be sick and will have to wash their hands. We will have to be very diligent in keeping everything clean in our home. (We will have to see how this goes!)