Surgery is Scheduled

We now have a date and time for Shayla's tumor removal surgery: Monday, July 7, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. After making a few calls the past 2 days trying to get the information from one doctor to another, we finally were able to get the dots all connected!

Shayla will have what is called a 'Total Maxillaryectomy" done on Monday. As part of that procedure, part of her hard palate will have to be removed. Since some of that palate has already been deteriorated by the tumor (as per the last CT and MRI scan reports), that was to be expected anyway.

With the removal of some of her hard palate (in the roof of her mouth), she will have to have what is called an "Opterator" made for her to wear in her mouth. This will be a retainer-like devise which will keep the opening closed in her mouth so nothing gets into the sinuses. We will be meeting with Dr. Beck tomorrow to discuss the surgery in more detail, and I will find out for sure, but I think she once told us that eventually, this hole in her palate could/would be closed with artificial bone, once she has been deemed cancer-free for a certain amount of time. I'll post an update to that once we have the details.

More New Docs to add to our list of 'Who's Who" for Shayla:
In order to have the opterator made, Shayla will meet with Dr. Braden Stauts, a prosthodontist, tomorrow so he can make the mold of her mouth before the surgery and the prosthesis can be "made to order", ready for post-surgery use.

On Friday Shayla will have to meet with an 'intervention radiologist" who will do a procedure that neither I nor the nurse could spell, but will in effect, cauterize the blood vessels to the tumor to decrease the amount of blood flow. We have known from Dr. Beck's initial biopsy that this was a very vascular tumor, so removal could be bloody if it isn't cauterized prior to removal. We don't know who that will be at this point.

So, as we move forward, we have a huge step of progress before us. Chemo regularly scheduled for this week is now post-poned until after Shayla is healed enough from the surgery to undergo the chemo. We are praying that all will go as expected in surgery and that the needed clean margins will be obtained through this procedure so we won't have to resort to the radiation treatment in Boston. We are also prayerful that she will be strong enough to participate in the Youth Trek at the end of this month. July 4th is Independence Day, but for Shayla, the whole month will be Independence Month as we look forward to the removal of the tumor and the 1/2-way mark of her chemo treatments!

Although Shayla won't verbalize it much, the emotion I most see from her lately is anger; not directed at her family or friends, or even the cancer, but directed at the doctors and practitioners who sometimes make her/us wait to be seen at the clinic. The MSTI clinic is one of the last places Shayla wants to spend any time (go figure!), so when there is a delay, she becomes quickly agitated and angry! Maybe it is directed to the people who are helping her because they are a visible respresentation of the chaos thrown into her life. She can't glare at cancer, but she can at a person! I know this is the hardest thing Shayla has ever endured, and she is doing a great job of it. Hopefully, in time, she will appreciate all the medical staff have done to help us all through this valley called cancer.