Surgery

Well, we are still here at the Cardon Children's Center and Ivan is scheduled for surgery in one hour. They did a CT scan last night and found that it is not a swollen lymph node like they had originally thought but rather an abscess that has grown on two of his lymph nodes. The IV antibiotics have helped a little but they are just not giving him the relief that the doctors had hoped for and so they have to make an incision in his neck and remove the infection. He has been very brave but a lot of that is because he is not quite sure what is going on. We are waiting for the child life specialist to come in and explain things to him a little more. In the meantime he is having a great time in pr-op playing the Wii. This hospital has been amazing. There is so much for the kids to do to keep them distracted. That is not to say he hasn't had a hard time, today was particularly rough for him because he couldn't eat or drink anything ALL day and the surgery isn't until 5pm. Somehow we are managing all of this. I only cried for a minute today when Matt had to go back to work after his lunch break and Ivan has only cried a few times because he can't eat. Just a few more days and this will all be over. Then it is on to the next trial.