The Journey Begins

I decided to make a blog as a way for everyone who cares about Elsa to know what is going on with her and keep all of the facts straight. I will start off by giving an overview of what has happened so far and what brought us to this point. On Sunday evening Elsa started to complain about her belly hurting really badly and she had an episode where she was very upset and in a lot of pain, but My mom was able to calm her down and get her to go to sleep. On Monday morning the first thing that Elsa said was that her belly hurt, so my Mom called the family doctor and got Elsa in for an appointment. Elsa never had a fever, constipation or any other really significant symptoms other than her belly hurting, so he was not worried and he gave her a prescription for an antacid. By Tuesday she was getting worse, not better so my mom called the family doctor again and he said that she should call to schedule a CT scan for Wednesday, but my mom didn't want to wait because Elsa was feeling so bad, so she went ahead and took her to the ER. I met my mom at the hospital around 10 once my mom found out that it wasn't good news. At the ER we found out that Elsa has either 2 or 3 tumors in her abdomen. The doctor who was in the ER was not a Pediatric Oncologist, so he didn't want to say too much in fear of giving us wrong information. Elsa got a dose of morphine while we were in the ER, so she felt much better and he referred us to Lutheran Hospital, so that we could meet with a Pediatric Oncologist. We headed over to Lutheran at 11:30, and Elsa fell asleep almost immediately. Al arrived shortly after she fell asleep. She got up and cried a couple times during the night, but in the morning when the doctor came in to talk to us she got another dose of morphine, so that made her feel better again. He confirmed that we should head to Riley today to consult with the doctors there because it is easier to confirm and start treatment of cancer with a larger team and more resources which are available to the larger hospital. He thought that we could do the initial treatment at Riley, and if more treatments of Chemo or anything else were needed we could continue at Lutheran in Fort Wayne to avoid constant trips to Indy. They did a few more tests on Elsa to make sure that she was stable enough to make the drive on her own without the need of an ambulance or the traveling ICU, and the tests came back fine so we headed out for Indianapolis around 11. When we got to Riley they checked us in right away and the doctors examined her. The tumors seem not to be attached to or growing from any organs, like her intestines or kidneys, but there are a lot of possible things that they could be and we just don't know for sure yet if it is cancer. The doctors said that they could not take any action tonight because it was too late. We will not know what exactly the tumor is until they do a biopsy. The surgeon told us that once he operates and sees the state of the tumor, if he is able to, he will attempt to not only take a piece for testing, but remove the entire tumor. Elsa is on the add on list for surgery tomorrow. Early in the morning we should find out about when the surgery should take place. If there is no room in the schedule or no cases are cancelled, the doctor will tack her onto the end of his list and do the surgery in the early evening.            

We have seen Elsa's belly grow in the last 24 hours, which indicates that the tumor is fast-growing. The surgeon said that this is the type of tumor that responds best to Chemotherapy, so that could turn out to be a blessing. 

Right now the Buddha baby is doing well. She was able to eat dinner (after being told not to eat all day long) and she was very excited about that! She is acting like a tired version of herself, which is nice considering all the tests and prodding that she has been through the last couple of days. 

We are so grateful for everyone who cares about Elsa and has expressed concern for the situation. I will keep you posted on what happens throughout the course of this journey.

Katherine Bowden