We were instructed to be at the hospital at 10:20am. Poor Dom had to fast again and hadn’t had anything to eat since 4 am when she had a small bottle. Running behind schedule, it wasn’t until 12:45pm when we handed Dom over to the nurse for sugery and she was definitely hungry. I could barely hold back my tears on this date and tried to stay strong for Dominique. The surgery was expected to take 2 ½ hrs. At about 2 ½ hours a nurse informed us that Dom would be taken to the Intensive Care Unit. The surgeons came to chat with us. They were able to confirm that the tumor is Neuroblastoma and that it is “viable” (still growing). We also found out the bone marrow tests came back negative (thank god). We get more details about the biology of the tumor the next week and will learn whether the biology is “favorable” or “unfavorable” prior to planning any treatment.

We waited till 5pm to see Dom as they had to x-ray her and do all sorts of stuff to her in ICU. It was heartbreaking. She had a tube draining blood from her chest, an oxygen tube in her nose, two intravenouses in her feet, and intravenous in her hand and her central line all connected. Because the tumor is located close to her left lung, the doctors had to collapse her lung for the procedure. She was on Morphine and not a happy child. She kept kicking her legs around, crying and trying to rip the oxygen tube from her nose. The nurses finally tied her arms to the bed to prevent her from injuring herself.

We stayed with her until 9:30pm and when we found out that she would be in ICU all night with one nurse constantly watching her, we decided to go home. This would be my first night without Dominique.

Time spent in the hospital on that day: 11 hours