The Biggest Day of Her Life

At 6:40 this morning our Lucy was woken up for the biggest event of her life. She, of course, had no idea what was happening, but she took it all in stride. By 6:45 my parents, uncle, aunt, 3 cousins, pastor and his wife were all in her room. Poor baby. She had to know something was going on because we were all crying. When they came to wheel her down to surgery she climbed over into the transport bed, sat up big and tall and said "Momma, I'm not scared." Yes, that would be the point where I officially lost it! Her innocence was so acutely evident at that very moment.

Erik and I were able to walk down to the OR with her and stay until they were ready to begin. When it was time to say good bye, she was crying, I was crying and Erik was crying. It was sheer agony. Her surgery lasted for 9 hours. We were surrounded by family and friends the whole time. I feel so incredibly blessed to have so many people willing to take off work to be with us. It was nice having a distraction from reality for a while. When we finally got the call that she had made it through, we couldn't run to ICU fast enough. We haven't left her side for hardly a minute since. We had several wonderful friends come down tonight to see Lucy and I am so grateful for those friendships.

Our neurosurgeon sat us down and gave us the details from the surgery. They were able to remove the 3 largest brain tumors. There was one that he found in the frontal lobe that he could not get. The big tumor in her back had unfortunately begun to grow into her spine (hence the reason she can't walk or empty her bladder) so he was not able to get all of it either. He was, however, able to shave down most of the tumor so that it would stop putting pressure on her spinal cord and hopefully allow her to start walking again. Because she will have to have what they call "high risk" chemotherapy anyway, they are just going to go after the leftover tumors with that. Because the cancer is spreading so very rapidly, they are going to have to go at it with chemo and radiation with a vengeance. It is going to be hell on earth. We are trying to prepare ourselves, but I don't think you really can. We had also hoped to be able to spend a couple of weeks at home recovering before we went to St. Jude, but it looks as if we will more than likely be headed straight there. Which honestly suits me fine. I just want to jump on this thing as quickly and aggressively as we can.

I can't tell you how much I dread what is coming, but today was a HUGE stepping stone in the right direction. Lots of hurdles were crossed today. Sweet Lulu has a nasty road in front of her, but I know she can make it. God is going to hold her in his arms the whole way.

To try to maintain some normalcy last night, we had some friends come see Lucy. We ordered pizza, colored, watched movies and just laughed! It was so good for her to be with her sister and friends.

Her BEST friend Hyatt

I think everyone that has come to visit Lucy has brought a new stuffed animal. She loves it! She could never have too many in her opinion. As she gets them, she is lining them up in a nice, neat row at the foot of her bed. She has her own personal audience. It is too, too funny!

Well, right now it is 12:17am on Saturday, February 26th. We have been at Le Bonheur for a little over 48 hours. I can tell you that it feels like 2 weeks already. Right now we are just trying to breathe. It's all we can do. I told someone today that I feel as if I am standing in the office. One minute I am on two feet doing well. Then a wave comes and I'm on my face struggling to stand up against the force. We spent a lot of time in prayer today. I know its the first of many days like that to come.

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