Next Step: Surgery

We are home from the CT scan and oncology appointment. We are feeling somewhat defeated and really numb to the update received. It has been a long day. We arrived to the hospital at 8:30 am and didn't get home until 4:00 pm. Anyway Raylee's oncologist, Dr. S, is pushing for surgery which we wanted but not for the reasons we wanted. The tumor is not responding to the Chemo which means it hasn't shrunk much, at least not significantly. Dr. S said it doesn't mean the Chemo didn't do anything, it just means the Chemo may have stabilized the growth of the tumor and shrunk it a little, but the cancer must not be aggressive. Chemotherapy shrinks aggressive cancer cells really quickly. If Raylee has more Chemo it still won't shrink the tumor enough to extract the tumor easily. The ideal would be that the tumor shrunk enough so the removal would be easy for the surgeon. Since that isn't happening, Chemo is canceled and a complicated surgery will take place. The surgeon may not be able to remove the entire tumor and we may need 2 rounds of post surgery Chemo and a lot more followup scans and visits then anticipated. The tumor is still pushing on Raylee's bladder causing her bladder to be squished, giving her pain, and making it difficult to go potty. The oncologist is getting concerned with the pressure that's on her bladder and removing the tumor will relieve it. Removing the tumor first was the original plan even though it was going to be difficult, but the plan changed to shrink the tumor with Chemo so the surgery wasn't so complicated. Feels like we are where we started and much progress wasn't made. I feel terrible. Raylee's surgery will be in the next week or two.