Bad Dream

On this, her second day in the hospital, Sinatra had surgery to get a bone marrow sample to confirm the diagnosis of Leukemia, (A.L.L.)

We woke us this morning in the hospital and heard from the overnight nurse that Sinatra's levels were good and the platelets were high enough to perform the bone marrow aspiration procedure. This procedure would help confirm Sinatra's diagnosis.

We walked through the two year old, pristine, hospital wing into the pre-op area. When we arrived we were greeted by multiple consent forms for the procedure and possible studies that Sinatra could be apart of if we agreed.  Thank goodness we are on the same page about this kind of stuff because making decisions like this for your kid is not easy. We opted in for two separate studies because they were low intrusion to Sinatra since she was already having the procedures and they provided additional benefits for her depending on the diagnosis. we also both believe that supporting research where you can can only serve everyone in the long run.

During pre-op Sinatra was nervous and it was hard to keep her calm. When it came time to lay her in the bed to be transported to the operating room, she didn’t like that at all. Luckily one of the Child Life specialists quickly came over playing cartoons on an iPad and blowing bubbles. The bubbles did it and really calmed Sinatra down and us too. Seeing her happy makes us happy.

A bone marrow aspiration takes approximately 15 minutes but in total we were waiting for close to one hour.  This was one of the hardest moments of this process so far because it was the first time we had to let Sinatra leave our side. We were very worried about the anesthesia because she had never been on it before and we obviously had no idea how she would react.

Recovery room time was quick and it was a god thing because our poor baby was starved! She ate all of the fruit that we could order and feel fast asleep with a very full belly.

Within a few hours of the procedure the doctors and nurses came into our room and informed us that the diagnosis was Leukemia. We are shocked, and it feels like a bad dream.  

We know that we will do whatever it takes to cure Sinatra of this cancer. Things are about to move very quickly.