Sierra's Biopsy Update

Sierra and I went to California the 21st-23rd. We got back last night at 10:30 PM. A long trip. Sierra had a biopsy Tuesday morning and all went well except, she has had a hacking cough for the last 3 weeks. The OR crew knew about the cough and was still OK with doing her biopsy (thank heavens). Toward the end of the biopsy, while she was under anesthesia she coughed and a bunch of gunk came up with it causing her oxygen saturation to drop a little bit. So, instead of the typical 1 1/2 hours of recovery, they wanted to watch her for 4 hours. If you can imagine, a room with four other beds in it with just curtains separating each one and a lot of little kids waking up from anesthesia. It can be pretty loud and obnoxious. So normally Sierra recovers really quickly and we end up leaving very shortly after she is wide awake. Now we had to sit there for four hours! She was not a happy camper, in the words of Sierra, "I just want to leave here, we are wasting our whole day." The doctors came in at the end of the four hours and told us that there was a little spot at the bottom of one lung on the chest x-ray so they wanted to start her on some antibiotics. She would take the antibiotics for 5 days and if the cough wasn't gone then to call them. Sierra's interpretation was, "We will put Sierra in the hospital for 5 days and then check to see if her cough is gone." Needless to say she was in no mood to talk to our favorite doctor, Dr. Bernstein, until I got her straightened out. However, the damage had already been done and she couldn't stop crying because she thought she was going to have to be admitted to the hospital. Anyway, we finally left the hospital and she was much more tired and exhausted than normal so we went to dinner with our favorite Stockwell's and then went back to the RMH and to bed.
Sierra's biopsy was a 1A, which we were actually relieved it was only that and not something more. We would have loved a 0, but with all she has been through the last few weeks we will take a 1A. Which means we get to return to California in 6 weeks for a follow up biopsy instead of 4 months. We are so very fortunate to have such a conservative group of doctors caring for Sierra. They really seem to look at everything with a thorough eye. Our stay at the Ronald Mcdonald House wasn't as fun as usual because of Sierra's cough. It alarmed many parents and so we were quarantined to our room (which is understandable with a house full of immunosuppressed kids) which is like a hotel room only without a TV or any form of entertainment. Sierra was upset, but, she got a lot of her homework done!
We missed seeing our friends the Thorntons, hopefully we get with you guys in June. We loved seeng the Stockwell's. They were our salvation in this whole mess of being quarantined. Thank you guys for visiting with us. See you in June! We love you guys!

Shawn (waiting for a heart for 2 years now), his sister Hailey and Sierra in front of the RMH.


Trista, Shawn, Hailey and Sierra. Not pictured is Shawns 2 sisters Amanda (at school in Palo Alto) and Sam(home in Alaska) and his dad George(home in Alaska).

Shawn, Hailey, Sierra, and me.