Cancer story continued

My son had his third surgery when he was 1. He bounced back fine. His oldest sister went into first grade knowing her brother Z was very special. This was the Fall of 2002. Then in December of 2002 Z consulted with his urologist Dr Park. Dr Park ordered an ultra sound. Everything looked great. The surgery seemed perfect now. He was finally free to give up his lifetime regiment of bactrin. He was surgecally cured of a dilated megaureter. This is the pipe connecting the bladder to the kidney.

We waited until June for his next ultrasound. I could tell right away my wife was in tears. She was very upset. There was a mass on his ultrasound. Little did I know this would lead to many consequences. It turned out we met with his urologist. He said it looked like a mass and this was not his area. We would need to see an oncologist. My wife said Dr Park this is how its going to be I've seen these kids they are awful and then they die. He told her not to lose hope.

Of course there are two miracles/mitzvot to remember here. First way back when we went to Cleveland, it says in the Torah commentaries, put your hands in a good doctor and don't troulbe your heart any more. Nope we went to Cleveland to second guess his work. Is this the punishment? No this is the second point. If it were not for the routine ultrasound for his earlier birth defect this problem would never have been caught in this way. When I say in this way it means the absolutely maximum survival rate. It was called Stage 1 Wilms tumor.

Even so this was a difficult time. Especially for our oldest. She thought he was going to die. Like most people it is hard to separate his first illness with his second. Related only by chance and area of the body. A one in a million birth defect at a level of 7 out of ten severity uncovering a 1 out of ten thousand child hood cancer at a stage 1 out of 5. And once again no symptons. No reason to suspect. Both times he has escaped death so amazingly and unknowingly. Dr Park was his hero again. He perfored a kidney removal. Not his most joyest surgery for both patient and surgeon. He is used to fixing urological parts, not chucking them. This all started to happen on a Thursday. On Saturday some people in the Jewish community were getting ready for Shavout. This was in June of 2003.

Friday night we went back to the hospital to prepare to spend the night for his surgery in the morning. This is when we met Dr Rajen Moody, really his name is Dr Mody an Indian. The nurse just spelled his name wrong. You are randomly given whoever is on call. I was glad we got there the night before the surgery. I was also on my second day off. Half day on Thursday for the Dr Park visit and all day Friday. Thursday night I got the results of his CT scan which Dr Park had ordered as part of his handoff from Urology to Oncology. I was teaching a class that night for Spring/Summer semester. I was teaching Object Oriented Features of C++. I don't think I called my parents until Monday. My wife's step mother flew out that Monday. My family is always the last to know anything. We get the low class treatment from my wife and her family. There is so much more to the story. I hate getting up early for surgery. I had been stealing my cats valium to deal with my wife's meaness to me and my parents and her general distemperment. I brought several with me to the upcoming surgery. Now I remember my wife's stepmom was there for the surgery. Remember this was 2 years ago and it is late at night now.