Hi everyone! I hope you're all able to enjoy this beautiful weather today, I love it! I'm so ready for the winter be over, bring on the spring!!!
Well, we certainly have an update for everyone. The past few days have really been chaotic, but in the end, it was worth it! We had our appointments yesterday at CHOP-for an ultrasound and with the liver specialist. So we had been waiting all week for Friday to come so we can hopefully get some answers. Before we got to Friday, we had to take care of Roxy. She started limping on Thurs, we had no clue what was wrong, she was fine when she went to bed on Wed, but we couldn't get her to vet until last night when we got back from CHOP. The poor thing was traumatized at the vet-plus she's in pain. She's been laying under the dinning room table since she got back last night. They did an X-Ray and said her wrist is swollen but nothings broken. They gave us some pain meds and told us to help her up and down the stairs and try to take it easy-which is usually hard for our crazy dog, but she's been really sad and tired. We feel so bad we can't do anything for her. Hopefully she'll be back to normal in no time.

There's one kid down!

Well we spent all day Friday at CHOP, I mean ALL day. We got there around 945/10 and didn't leave until almost 4! I hate that place! First we had Abby's belly ultrasound. The Dr's wanted to see how much the tumor had grown in relation to how much Abby was growing, and then we would talk to liver Dr about the ultrasound and go from there. Much to every one's surprise, not only did the tumor not grow, it actually shrank! A lot!! They told us from the beginning that there was pretty much no chance it would shrink-it was never a thought for anyone-(except my sister's husband, who kept asking "so it could shrink and go away?" and Jess would say, "no, it doesn't work like that"-I hate when he's right!)-so we were shocked! And so was the radiologist, and both the liver Dr's. Basically, the tumor is shrinking and dying on its own. At this point, they aren't sure what the growth is,so they don't know if it will go away completely or not. If the growth is what was originally diagnosed(a hamartoma), it is extremely rare for it to shrink and die on it's own. It's apparently extremely rare for there to be this kind of growth in an infant anyway. So it either is a hamartoma, or they were wrong and it's another kind of tumor. They said there are some tumors that grow in infants but shrink on their own and they usually don't even find them unless there's another reason to do an ultrasound or MRI. Abby still may need surgery to remove whatever it is, but it's much smaller than before, and it may shrink further, so the surgery would be far less complicated. There is a chance it could go away all together. Now they have to figure out what it is. When Abby was in the hospital they took blood every week to monitor the tumor and see if it was growing. She hasn't had any tests since then, so they drew blood yesterday and will compare it to the previous tests. They are also going to go over the ultrasound with the surgeon and the radiologist and see if they can figure it out. Abby will probably need an MRI sooner than later so they can get a clearer picture,(which means an overnight stay) but they will probably wait until after flu season so she doesn't catch anything in the hospital. It may be a while until we know what the growth is for sure, but it is definitely great news that it is shrinking! We are trying not to get our hopes up too high because it is hard for them to be sure of anything with out surgery or a biopsy-so they have to find another way to figure it out. Of course Matt claims that the tumor is dying because Abby received his blood during a transfusion and he swears his blood will cure anything-I let him think whatever he wants! We will keep everyone updated as we hear more, but this is for sure good news-it's about time!!!
We also heard from the Dr about Abby's monitor download. Everything was all clear-as we knew it would be. We stopped the caffeine(which was for the apnea) and in two weeks if the monitor is still empty-meaning she had no alarms-we know she won't-did I mention we both we are smarted than the docs!!-we can get rid of it! YAY! Abby is really doing so well, and we thank everyone again for all your love and support! Sorry that this post was so long, but I'm always so excited to share with everyone what's going on! Here's a few pics...

My great Aunt Grace-that's where we got Abigail Grace-made her the beautiful blanket that's she's laying on..every new addition gets one... Abby doing some tummy time....