Biopsy day

Today is the day. We are here with Ruby waiting for them to call her down to the operating room for the biopsy. She is doing well. Her vitals are great and she is fantastic at resting. She ended up receiving her PICC line early this morning instead of last night since they had a few other cases arise. Our nurse told us that Ruby did wonderfully and didn't even need anesthesia, which is awesome.

We are hopeful that the biopsy will reveal more concretely what the mass is primarily composed of, which should give us a more defined direction moving forward and how to address it. What we do know from the CT scan is that the mass is divided into several sections that each have their own blood source. There is also some fleshy tissue in there and evidently, that is the portion they want to look at more closely from the biopsy.

It's incredible how comforted we have felt being up here at the U and Primary's. We were a bit unsure before hand because we have had such amazing experiences at IMC and felt like we were treated so well over there. But everyone here has been very helpful and we are frankly astounded by how many people we are connected to up here in some way. To give you some idea, our OB works a lot with Dave (Ali's bro-in-law, Geneticist) and is also good friends with Ali's sister, Jenn (Dave's wife).  There is our Anesthesiologist, Liz, who is my sis-in-law (Bill's wife) who was there with us as well.  Immediately following the delivery, Ruby's primary nurse in the NICU at the U was Alisa, Jenn's best friend who has known Ali and her family for years.  There were also two other nurses in the NICU, Erica, who is a cousin of one of my friends and is also a good friend of Kerrah (Ali's sis-in-law) and Julie, who used to live next door to Ali's family while growing up and was their babysitter.

Once we were transferred over to Primary's, I was shown around by Janet Newman, who lives in my parents' ward and whom I've known for several years.  And come to find out, one of the nurses here is also someone I have known for several years, Angie, who grew up with my brothers (her two brothers Jeff & John are good friends of my bro James) so we are hoping that she can come take of Ruby when she is here. Our ENT, Dr. Grimmer, is a close friend of Dave and works with him very closely.  He was actually the one who worked on Dave & Jenn's daughter, Kate, who had a hemangioma when she was young.  It truly is amazing that we have so many people that we know that are helping and looking after our Ruby.

We will update you on the results of the biopsy here soon.