Best Case Scenario

After an almost six-hour surgery, she is out. Her INCREDIBLE surgeon just came in to speak to us about how everything went.

Bottom line, every element of the surgery was best case scenario. And now, after walking in circles for half the day, we can breathe again.

Her tumor was massive. He showed us a photo and we gasped. It truly did take up her entire abdomen - and amassed to 15% of her body weight. He said that this was the largest kidney tumor he has removed in his career.

He was able to remove the entire tumor without any spillage, she did not need any major blood transfusions, and by the naked eye the cancer looked not to have spread. They will do some testing on her lymph nodes to make sure, but they anticipate that it will be clear.

It went so well that she is able to bypass ICU and go straight to the surgical floor, which is another huge win. She has an epidural to help with her pain management over the next few days which will hopefully keep her as comfortable as possible.

Doctors are truly amazing. But, today we are especially thankful for Dr. Lautz who has made a career of removing tumors from children - does not get much more noble than that.

I am starting to write this blog prior to seeing Laila. And we cannot wait to see her. She did so well and we are so proud. We also want to share how thankful we are for all of you who have been praying, sending texts, messages, posting on social media, etc.

You all are our greatest gifts and the most incredible support system we could ask for!

This was the largest step in her journey and the sense of relief is immense. We still have five-six more months of chemo and radiation, but that is precautionary and preventative. But, we are over the hump and so happy that she doesn’t have that giant mass inside of her any more.