Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams

We were up at 5 am. Restless.
Dogs. Sylvie. Long day ahead of us.

I dropped off MIchael and Sylvie at the outpatient radiology registration where Sylvie had a meltdown, no surprise. I parked the car at the clinic and met them. I called Dr. Harris to let him know Sylvie had about 2 sips out of 8 requested ounces of berry-flavored barium. He didn't seem concerned.

Following the scans we went to the clinic for lab work, get a new port needle (ouch), see Dr. Harris, make Play-doh ice cream sundaes with Jette (can't Jette come with us everywhere? Sylvie is much better behaved around her). A busy day.

We waited around for the CT scan results and when it became apparent it would be later, we went home, lost in our silence despite Sylvie singing "Road Trip" in the back of the car.

And so we waited.

And waited.

All afternoon.

So we called. And were told to wait a little longer until clinic hours were over.

Dr. Harris called around 6. Lungs- O OKAY! Left liver lobe- LOOKS GREAT! Dr. Harris said, "Looks Stupendous!" Right liver lobe- WAIT I THOUGHT THERE WAS NO MORE LIVER LOBE??? Well, the scrappy remains of the right liver lobe look a little scrappy and this may or may not be a bad thing.

"I am not unhopeful, Mrs. Hughes" is exactly what he said to me which in my book translates to "I am hopeful"?

What it means is that he plans on talking to Dr. Valda and I asked him to talk to Dr.Dunn to see if this is what resected liver tissue looks like. It also means we have to wait an agonizing day or two to get the alphafetaprotein level blood test back. If it continues to be low- fantastic. If the number is higher, we need to investigate.

And that's all we know.

So, it's never easy and yes, we need a break. Why the fuck can't the Hughes family and our extended families and most important, Sylvie, get a break?

But if you were hoping to read tonight that we were opening the champagne, not quite yet. I never thought I could hold my breath for 48 hours but here goes.

This really could be totally fine. It's like when you bring your kid to the doctor because they have a bump or rash and it's nothing. Only in Sylvie's case, it might be something. Know what I mean? Naturally we're a little flustered, maybe even a little bummed because we thought our troubled times might be put to rest today. Hopefully they will tomorrow or the day after.

Sylvie is our idol. She's amazing. Funny, smart, precocious, fancy and fabulous. So in honor of Sylvie, we're going to be fancy and fabulous too until we hear back from Dr. Harris, although we will keep the champagne on ice.