Almost in the clear...

Cater had his 4 week post-op appointment yesterday and all is good. Dr. Birken was pleased to see how well Carter is doing and said he was healing nicely. The swelling in Carter's tongue is almost completely gone so we will be starting solids as soon as we get the green light from Dr. Villar. Dr. Birken said that he is still researching as to why this happened but he has come across 2 known cases in the United States and 5 cases in the world with Carter's condition. So I guess that makes us #6! Still no reasoning as to why but who cares about the academics when Carter is a healthy boy! We will go back in another 6 weeks to make sure he's still on track and we might not have to do an MRI if everything looks and feels the same. Carter is amazing in every way. He's developing in the 95 percentile and already has his two bottom teeth in. He changes over night, its crazy!

Snips and snails, and puppy-dogs' tails, and an extra thymus gland, that's what Carter is made of...

Its been 10 since Carter's surgery and he is doing incredibly well! We saw Dr. Birken 5 days after Carter's surgery and he was quite impressed on how well Carter was doing and how different he looked! Dr. Birken confirmed again (after I asked again for the millionth time) that it was a benign mass that was removed. He said that it was actually healthy thymus gland tissue, which basically means Carter was born with 2 thymus glands. Dr. Birken has contacted several people in the medical field to see what could have caused this and if it has ever been reported. As of now he has spoken to Genealogy and Infectious Disease and both have never heard of such a thing. We will be going back in a month for a check up and to see if anything has come back as to why, or how this happened. It just so crazy to think that we went from one extreme to the other. We were told he had a rare, highly aggressive cancer to healthy thymus gland tissue. We are so fortunate how things have turned out and now we have all the time in the world to enjoy watching him grow. Carter will still have to go in for testing in the future just as a precaution. We can't believe how different Carter is! He has always been a happy-go-lucky boy with a laid back personality but since the surgery he's full of life! Despite all the obstacles he has faced and is currently facing (he's cutting his first tooth and ripped the surgical tape off his incision) he is loving life and has this amazing sparkle in his eyes that wasn't there before. This boy is going to have the biggest 1st birthday this side of the Mason-Dixon line I tell you!

God listens, you just have to talk loud!

And god listened alright! First off we would like to thank everyone, we wouldn't be where we are at without your positive thoughts and prayers. We are so happy to report that Carter is cancer free! We went to Joe Dimaggio Children's Hospital Friday morning for the biopsy surgery. Let me tell you that was probably the hardest thing we've ever been through thus far. I cried so hard when they took our little boy from my arms and carried him away to the operating room. We had been waiting for 2 hours when Dr. Birken called for us. He took us out into the hallway to explain everything. The first thing that came out of his mouth was "well I took a biopsy and it came back as a thymic tumor that is benign." It still didn't register with me what he had said. I think after the forth time it finally dawned on me that Carter was going to be just fine. We fell to our knees crying and thanking god for hearing our prayers and guiding Dr. Birken's hands. Dr. Birken then followed with "Since the tumor was contained I was able to remove the whole thing which was the size of my fist." Um excuse me! We couldn't believe that something the size of a grown man's fist was in the neck of our little boy. He sent the tumor down to pathology and they biopsied 3 large sections and all came back benign. He told us in the 20 years he has been doing this he has never came across a large benign thymic tumor detached and in the neck. He said he was going to do some research but would like to document this case in the medical books. We stayed in the hospital for 2 nights to make sure Carter was stable and was able to eat on his own. Due to the location of the surgery Carter's throat is sore and the right side of his tongue is swollen. His tongue was so swollen the first night they had to call in the PICU doc to make sure his breathing was not obstructed and give him something for the swelling. The second day he was doing much better and able to eat a few ounces but Dr. Birken wanted to keep him another night. Carter was much better this morning and able to get about 3 ounces of formula down at each feeding. We are now home and have our follow up appointment on Tuesday. There are no words to describe the over whelming joy we have and how relieved we are that our precious boy has a new lease on life. We can now truly enjoy our beautiful son. Shout out to Dr. Birken, you are an amazing doctor and thank you for all the hard work and research you put in to making sure Carter is going to live a long healthy life.

Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts!

And the saga continues...

After 3 different tests we are still left with no answers as to what the mass is. We did get some what of an answer that the mass looked like a Rhabdomyosarcoma. However, Dr. Birken is not convinced that the mass is malignant of any type. He spoke to several other pediatric radiologists and oncologists and they all came to the conclusion that the mass is malignant. Still Dr. Birken doesn't think that's the case. The feel of the mass doesn't match what they see on the MRI. With that being said we are headed in on Friday for biopsy surgery. Hopefully we will get an answer next week and know exactly what we are dealing with... fingers crossed...