Posted 2014-03-05T02:45:09Z

9:03pm ET: Done for the night

It's just after 9:00pm and Edward's big day is all done. The surgery that was expected to take about 3.5 hours took closer to 5.5 hours. Here's why... Instead of being intertwined with the sympathetic nerve bundle as anticipated, the offending tumor was instead in close proximity and even connected to one or more of the brachial plexus trunks. These nerves control the muscles of the arm and hand (in this case the left) and Dr. Robertson wanted to take his time and be extra cautious when working in such close quarters to preserve these important nerve pathways.

In his post-op visit, Dr. Robertson explained that the tumor was a bit larger and more disc-shaped than originally thought, about the size of a quarter. He was able to take a large part of the tumor out, but not all of it, because of its connection to the brachial plexus. He described it as being actually part of the nerve, somehow. Of course, it's always best to get as much of a tumor out as possible, but in this case it was more important to preserve the left arm function. Happily, remnants of neuroblastomas often shrink or at least become benign when the larger part of the tumor is resected. Several doctors have mentioned this to us with the comment, "We don't really know why neuroblastomas act this way, but they often do." So, once again, we are very grateful that Edward has this particular type of cancer. Dr. Robertson was hopeful that Edward would have the use of his arm, and would escape Horner's Syndrome, but he noted that either area could show problems and that we would just have to see how Edward behaved when he woke up.

We are excited to report that, though Edward has not really fully woken up (he transitioned pretty seamlessly from medicated sleep to night-time sleep with the help of some much needed mama's milk), he has squeezed our fingers with his left hand and waved his left arm around! Praise the Lord! These are good signs. Several tests will be done in the next few days. The tumor itself will be examined and tested, as well as the bone marrow they collected. Dr. Pillai (oncology fellow) said we can probably expect at least one of the bone marrow tests back by tomorrow afternoon (3/5/14). We are so grateful for the many, many emails, text messages, posts on this website and Facebook, etc.

We haven't had a chance to read, much less respond to every message, but we feel overwhelmed with love and support, and are incredibly thankful for the prayers that are being sent up on Edward's behalf. Thank you!

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Emilie DeVasher 31 Comments

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9:03pm ET: Done for the night

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