The Big Day!

The big day is coming!  Maggie is having her smorgasbord of procedures and surgery on Monday, June 20.  Each of her specialists wanted to get a sense of how she's healed in the year plus since her critical illness last spring.  So, they are combining them all in one extended procedure so she doesn't have to be put under more than once.  She will be having a scope done of her belly to check the status of her ulcers.  She will have a bronchoscopy and washing done of her lungs to see what types of cells are present.  She will also have a CT scan to check her current lung health and recovery from her lung injury.  Finally, she will have her port removed, something that most children have removed within the first 3 months off of treatment.  Dr. French thinks that Maggie's immune system has recovered enough to not have to need IVIG's anymore (immune system antibodies) and that she doesn't need to have a central IV line.  The removal of her port signifies the true END of the last nearly three years of Maggie's treatment.

These procedures require Maggie to obviously be sedated, but also intubated (put on a ventilator).  Both of these situations bring some worry to me (though Andy thinks it will be routine).  Last year, the pulmonary doctors wanted to do a repeat CT scan of Maggie's lungs while she was still hospitalized, but the oncologists thought that it would be too risky to undergo a procedure like that (one that would require sedation and intubation again).  For this reason, I would ask if you would say a prayer for Maggie on Monday morning.  Her procedures begin at 8:38 (ironically, the same time of the day that she was born).  I hope and expect that this day will be the last page in Maggie's "cancer" book.