Dr Ruge came out to update us and our families in our private family waiting lounge. He sat down with us and talked about everything he did. Cade tolerated the surgery great. They were able to remove 99% of the tumor. The tumor was growing on the vomiting center of his brain, which was why he was having the vomiting, but no headaches. There was a thin layer of the tumor that had grown on the top of the brain stem. The surgeon chose to leave that thin layer, the 1%, because that was the safest choice to make for Cade. Otherwise it could have caused great damage to the brain stem.
The pathologist in the OR did a frozen specimen review, which is about 90% accurate and as Dr Ruge continued, my heart sank. The specimen of the tumor looked at today appears to be a medullablastoma. This form of tumor is malignant. If this comes back to be the definite pathology, then Cade without a doubt will need radiation and chemotherapy to kill that last layer left in his brain on the brain stem. Without treatment, the tumor most definitely will grow back. This is the type of tumor they have presumed him to have since the CT was done in the ER. This news was and is terrifying to hear as this was the same type of tumor that Chris sister Heidi had as a child and she passed away. Dr Ruge is aware of this and assured us that he feels that Cade will do very well with treatment, he did great with surgery, and that medicine has made GREAT strides with medullablastomas since she lost her battle. He has many children who have had it and are doing well. The tumor will be sent out for further pathology testing, as well as genetic testing. They will look at the tumor in 100 different ways and give a definite determination of what exactly it is. We will know for sure by the end of this week.
Hearing that gave me hope. Hope that by some grace of God, we could still have a different diagnosis by Friday. That all of the prayer warriors out there can still pull some weight up there and shift the outcome of this story. At least that is what I am fervently praying for. Hoping for. Begging for.
But right now he has made it safely out of surgery. That’s all we were asking for. The surgery got 99% of the tumor. That’s great. It could have been worse and more could have had to remain. So now we wait. We continue to pray for healing. Pray. Pray. Pray.
Some fun little signs that have sat well in my soul are these- last night I was texting and typing an update and while I was trying to type the word best, my phone autocorrected me to the word BEAT. This happened twice. I smiled. Then a few minutes later I was trying to type something and was autocorrected to the word LIVE. Today it makes me smile again as it makes even more sense that GOD, or someone up there ( maybe my gram, maybe Chris grandma, maybe even Heidi) was trying to let me know Cade was going to beat this and that he is going to LIVE. I believe this in my heart. Regardless of the end report, I can handle it. I can handle all of this. What I cannot handle, is loosing my baby. It’s not an option.
God bless every one of you taking your time out to read this and think about Cade. Please keep him in your strongest prayers. ❤️❤️❤️
Our Warrior Journey 