This post is to bring everyone up to speed and to provide insight into case history.

Late November 2008 Caitlyn had an appointment for a sonogram to look into a common problem girls of puberty age will encounter, an irregular cycle. I remember that day clearly now as later on the reason why the sonogram couldn’t be read (due to fluid) would come into play. Because of not being able to read the sonogram a CT scan with contrast was ordered at our local hospital, December 27th 2008.  Somewhere in the middle of December we tried another sonogram as Caitlyn has a fear of needles, this was to take place at a different imaging center but again the same result, fluid so the sonogram again couldn’t be read.

The holiday’s are in full swing at this point as the CT scan was laying on Caitlyn’s mind, knowing she will be given an IV for contrast. Pretty quiet in fact as we went out to dinner with friends on Christmas Eve and had family over Christmas Day. So quiet I was mentioning the curse was gone to my sister as this was the first Christmas in 4 years where somebody wasn’t in the hospital such as my mother or father. Little did we know we were about to pay a huge price in just 2 days as Caitlyn showed no symptoms what so ever.

It’s December 26th and Caitlyn is back from post holiday shopping when she is upset about getting an IV tomorrow morning. Stupid me tells her i will buy her an iTunes card ($15) for every needle she gets not knowing what lies ahead the next day. At this point we went to arbitration and have settled for uggs and some iTunes cards thankfully.

Saturday December 27th, 9AM appointment for a CT Scan:

Caitlyn is of course nervous due to the contrast IV but all in all everything was going pretty smooth. The scan is complete and we are about to leave until the nurse stops us to bring Caitlyn back in to retake the scan. Meanwhile, my wife is questioning me do you think something is wrong, why do they need to retake the scan etc… 15 minutes later Caitlyn comes out and the nurse leads us to a waiting room as the scan is to be read now.

About 30 minutes pass and the anxiety builds as we had been through this before when we learned our youngest daughter was born deaf at about 13 months of age, we knew the routine so to speak. The nurse comes into the waiting room and asks my wife and myself to come in the back, to a private room to wait for the phone to ring as our pediatrician was to call. My wife and I are already broken as the phone rings and she answers crying. I hear mass and lesions, then the phone is handed to me. It was described to me as a 10 CM mass on her liver with lesions throughout her abdomen and pelvis. Blindsided to say the least!

The pediatrician suggests we go immediately to Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester County Medical center in Vallhalla NY, I ask if we should go to Sloan Kettering in NYC but at this time we went to the pediatrician’s office to obtain a copy of the CT scan report and then we stopped at home to feed Caitlyn as she hadn’t eaten due to the 9AM appointment. My wife broke again before we left the hospital and I broke again at home on our deck, same place where I broke when we learned about our youngest being born deaf.

Down to Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at westchester County Medical center in Vallhalla NY with my sister in law following and a few friends on the way. Check into the ER with a brief waiting period then into the room for a blood draw. Later comes a chest X-Ray and about 2 hours later I, my wife and my sister in law are meeting with an oncologist from the pediatric group at the hospital who our pediatrician was in contact with earlier.

There we sit as the doctor talks to us, I couldn’t even remember her name as states words like lesions, mass, tumor and describes what was found on the X-Ray (another rather large mass behind her lung). One thing that stuck in my mind was the doctor asking us if there was anything in regards to complaints of pain, our answers were always no as Caitlyn would tell you herself. No symptoms and the doctor is telling us you don’t normally see something this advanced without signs, she stated she had not seen something like this before.

The three of us were broken as this was explained to us. A short while later the doctor was explaining this in minimal detail to Caitlyn and admitting her to the hospital. I think I am into it for 3 or 4 iTunes cards at this point as I try to lighten Caitlyn’s spirits. At some point earlier I had called my mother and sister as well as Stuart who is a long time friend and business partner. I asked Stuart to secure a hotel room for us to be closer to the hospital. Somewhere in there I called Deb, my online business partner and asked her to take care of our businesses online which is no easy task after I explained what was happening (this poor lady was slammed with a tremendous workload that you couldn’t imagine).

At some point Georgine (my wife) went home with our youngest Hailee to gather some clothes for us. Soon after that Caitlyn was assigned a room and we were on the move. I can’t even remember who stayed with Caitlyn and I but I think it was my Sister in Law and I am forever grateful as I couldn’t remember if I was coming or going at this point. Caitlyn, understandably was scared to death at this point and so was I. Why? I kept asking, I mean come on, this was a routine test for something simple we thought. No signs of nothing!

Georgine returns and we swap, I go home this time to get some stuff and take a shower. I drive my Sister in Law home and she returns back down to the hospital a little before I do as I had a bit more to do. By this time others have arrived at the hospital such as my mother and sister. More people seemed to keep Caitlyn’s mind at ease that first night.

Slowly the visitors empty out and the 4 of us are left. Soon after that My wife and youngest left to spend the night at the hotel. I was staying with Caitlyn as Hailee’s cord seems to be still attached even though I clearly remember cutting it myself.

I remember setting up my laptop to try and do some work facing Caitlyn and talking her to sleep finally around midnight. You can imagine the questions she was asking that I didn’t have answers for other to tell her we needed to do additional testing. Imagine, 14 year old beautiful girl, 2 days after Christmas and you are thrown into a hospital for testing. I know I had maybe an hour’s sleep that night somewhere between 4 and 6 AM as MRI’s and more CT scans were to start the next morning.

To be continued….