"The Mass"

Our girl has been sick...so sick! As I spoke of last time...she threw up all day Sat and Sun. We went to the ER where she had an IV....she seemed to be better the next day. I took her to our family Dr., whom I love....(not like that....) and he agreed that she seemed better. The next morning the girl showed up next to my bed doubled over in pain. I took her to the bathroom...isn't that what any mom would do? She SCREAMED in pain! She has a UTI...thought I. I took her in again to our lovely Dr. Rector. He tested her urine....which was not fun to get from her I tell you....it took a LONG time! That girl is pretty stubborn! No UTI. "Perhaps Appendicitis" said Dr. Rector. It was off to Bryan East for a CT Scan. It was lots of time in a waiting room having her drink a "yucky drink", two cups of it! She spent the entire time curled in a ball on my lap....I asked for a fan...as I was so HOT....but they did not have one....bummer. It turns out that a CT Scan involves having an IV....and Hannah is not a fan of those so when the time came to have that...you can imagine...it took three of us to hold her down while she screamed at the top of her lungs "TAKE IT OUT OF ME!!".

Hannah just sitting around...that's all she wanted to do.

In the waiting room at Radiology....just wanting to be in my arms.

The "yucky drink".

In the CT Scan.

Well, after the CT Scan I sat with her for longer in the waiting room....waiting....isn't that why it's called "the waiting room"? Finally....I got a call from Dr. Rector....her appendix is fine....But...just so you know, I was not ready for this "but". They found a mass. A mass? Like a tumor!???". yes, a mass, they found it next to her colon...they are not sure what it's attached to, maybe her ovary? She's 4! How could this be? She'll need to have surgery, it needs to be removed and he promised to call me in the morning with an appointment with a pediatric surgeon at Childrens Hospital in Omaha. I went home in a daze...

The next morning Dr Rector called and said the soonest we could get in was next Thursday the 2nd of Sept. We waited til Thursday the 27th....I called and said she can't wait...she's in so much pain....so our Dr. said go to the ER at Childrens...they'll have to see you. So we went.....now I have to tell you that our girl began singing on the ride to Omaha...we hadn't heard any singing since before Saturday. I wondered if we should even be taking her...she seemed better....glad I didn't listen to myself. We took her...they took many many ultra sound pictures labeling many of them "the mass".....then came back to take some more....then took us back to our ER room....then came and got us again, now the radiologist wanted to do the ultra sound herself...I knew this could not be good....and it wasn't. The "mass" was not attached to her ovary...it WAS her ovary! Now a surgeon came to speak with us. He is so nice and so gentle with Hannah....I love him (not that way!!). His name is Dr. Cusick and if you ever need a pediatric surgeon in Omaha...he's your guy! He explained that for some reason they believed Hannah's fallopian tube had twisted around and cut off the blood supply to her ovary. They would need to do surgery right away and hope they could repair it...if not they would need to remove it. Our girl was prepped for surgery right then....she seemed to be feeling so much better....I asked why this was and Dr. Cusick explained that her ovary had probably already "died" and now she didn't have as much pain...but he wouldn't know til he got in there.....turns out he was right. The surgery took around an hour and a half....Aaron and I waited in the waiting room...where else???...this time it was the surgery waiting room. Dr. Cusick came out to tell us the surgery was done. Hannah did very well...they had to remove her right ovary along with her fallopian tube...she still has one ovary and fallopian tube that look good...so she can still have children. Why does this happen? Well, there's a possibility there's a tumor in her ovary and the blood supply was cut off to kill it....our bodies are smart. But, we are not going there yet....the pathology report comes back some time next week....not going worry about that unless we have to.

She was so happy before surgery...smiling and cute....not so much after. She was yelling and screaming and even shoved a nurse while yelling at her "GET AWAY FROM ME!". We were hoping to go home on Friday...but we went home Saturday instead. She had a hard time at first, she couldn't hold food down and they had trouble managing her pain but now she's recovering nicely and is having some pain but is able to play and have fun.

She's singing again! We're so happy to have her home and back!

In the ER at Chilrens Hospital...that's her new kitty, flowers, the ultra sound tech gave it to her and it it quickly became her favorite thing in the world.

Dr. Cusick "signed" her tummy and then let her have the pen...she was so glad to have it and after the surgery asked, well screamed, "WHERE'S MY PEN!".

the autograph

The last picture taken before surgery.

The first picture taken after surgery...she was swollen and itchy....I think it was from the morphine...that's what morphine does to me.

Watching Cinderella, this is what calmed her down...Cinderella is her favorite princess....she told me she really wanted to go to Disneyland but she didn't know how to get there and then she started to cry.....drugs will do that to you.......I told her maybe we can go when she's 5. She was worried that it would be a very long walk....I assured her we'd either drive or go on a plane.....she was excited to think about riding on a plane and told me she could watch a movie on the plane.

This is pretty much how she looked the first night....either that or crying that "my tummy hurts"

The first night...now I think she was watching The Little Mermaid....after that I turned off the TV and she slept til she had to go potty and then she cried all the way to the bathroom...in the bathroom and all the way back to her bed...poor baby girl.

This was the view out the window...it really was so cool...we were on the 4th floor. I didn't sleep much the first night....I was worried.

The next day she looked like this alot or she was crying....so it was decided another night would do her good.....I went home to get a shower and new clothes and Aaron stayed with her.

When I came back from Lincoln...I found this...a happy girl feeling better....yay! Joe and Matthew came back with me....we went down to the lobby to get our girl walking!

Joe Matthew and Hannah

They have a little "river" in the lobby.

They had fun throwing coins in and making wishes....Hannah told me she wished she was a "real princess". I told her she was my real princess.

Our happy girl!

The daytime view from our room.

Feeling good!

They had a lovely play room there...she was very excited to go in there!

A view finder!

She loved playing with all the "food". She made me many meals. She also loved playing Dr. with her dad....they even let her bring toys back to her room to play with.

Now here's the graphic photos.