Surgery day has arrived

The pace picked up yesterday as everyone returned back to work after the holiday weekend. It was a welcome change to have several tests to occupy our time and energy. William mentioned all the test, so I'll explain the purpose of each one. (for you medical junkies: if I get it wrong, I'm blaming it on the onslaught of info that is starting to be flung at us:))

EKG-measure heart rhythms
Echo cardiogram-establish a baseline of heart function before chemotherapy
Skeletal survey -a full body series of x-rays for a baseline of his bones (there may also be another reason for this one, but not sure/don't remember)
Bone scan- radioactive dye injection and then pics with gamma rays to see if Doohickey has any brothers. Will has names picked out, but we're hoping he's an only child! (names: whatchamacallit, discombobulated, thingamabob, whack)

Surgery will be at 1:30PM at the moment. William will be having a central line installed, and will get a biopsy of his tumor and a sample of his bone marrow. We've been bumped back from 12:30PM due to a heart operation, but pediatrics usually get first priority after emergencies so hopefully we won't be bumped again.

William is in great spirits and is only concerned about when he can eat after the surgery and the Harry Potter trivia game we are playing at the moment. Hazel, one of the service dogs is coming to visit him before the surgery. Very exciting! Child Life (the group who makes sure the kids have a fun time and helps the parents explain things appropriately) is coming to visit with a medical doll to show him what his body will look like after surgery.

It looks like we're off to the play room for an art project so I'll sign off until we have more news.

We will meet with the oncology team tomorrow and receive the preliminary results of the biopsy and discuss if further avenues need to be explored/included in our journey.

Thanks again everyone for the outpouring of support - we feel it strongly and it is holding us up. But most importantly I want everyone to know how grateful we are for incredible, supportive, loving family. My sister, Mary and her husband, Erik, and new baby, Eliza, jumped in the car Friday night to travel from the Bay Area when this all started, to be here so we wouldn't have to spend a single moment worrying about our other children while we figured out William's situation. My sister-in-law, Paige, has super powers to have dropped her entire busy schedule to come here and take care of my 4 boys and 3 of her 4 children at the same time for the rest of the week until Ryan's mother arrives on Sunday. We are grateful for such loving parents who have taught us how to love and care for one another and to not fear adversity, but to rise above and become stronger.