Hi everyone, just a really quick update as I can't leave Dylan too long. He is medically doing wonders. Dylan's surgery was a complete success! Dr La Qualia is an amazing man. He removed all of the tumor that he could see, including from his Aorta, renal arteries, spleen and his left kidney (which he managed to save) The surgery started at 2:46pm on Wednesday 9th February and I was able to be with Dylan by 10:45pm in recovery. Dylan was then transferred from MSKCC to the NEW YORK Hospital across the road for pediatric ICU care. On Friday Dylan was transferred back to the pediatric Observation Unit at MSKCC and is currently recovering there. Dylan, despite the remarkable rate of recovery, is quite a lot of pain. All day we have had pain issues, but now I think we finally have it under control with I.V morphine. The epidural that he had, actually fell out during the night and every time I pressed the button to give him a dose, it just went all over the bed and not into him. Dylan had his chest tube out today and is allowed to have apple juice. He is asking for hotdogs, Burger King and pizza and gets most upset when I tell him that he needs the doctor to say he is allowed to have it. He says "Get me Dr Macqualia!" (Dr La Quaglia). He has not lost his cheeky spirit though. This morning the surgical team was examining him and he was yelling in pain. They asked him to tell them where the pain was and he replied "In my stomach...DER!!!" Hopefully he will settle tonight. He has no tubes in him now, just his new button peg (Feeding tube) his hickman lines and he is still having oxygen though the face mask.
The new webpage photo above, was taken just before surgery
I have put a photo in the "view photos" section of Dylan in ICU. This photo is quite distressing but I know that a lot of people are wanting to know what Dylan went through. This is the hardest part of Dylan's fight for remission. Next Dylan will have to under go further treatment to try and get the Neuroblastoma out of his bones. This will involve chemotherapy, radiation, MIBG treatment and 3F8 monoclonal antibodies. This will continue for a year or more.
The good news is that we are getting enormous support here in New York. The Australian Consulate have been incredible and have put us in touch with Jim, an amazing man that founded the "Operation oz kids USA fund" I did not even know that this existed. Please take the link to read more:
http://www.americanaustralian.org/Philanthropic/operationozkids.php
