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Heather Roy
@happilyheath

9,915 followers

Repost from diagnosis series I use the phrase “fight this battle” in this post. A phrase I have since stopped using. Cancer is not a battle. It can not be won or lost based on effort. S U R G E R Y // treatment officially began when Evelyn admitted to the hospital to have her primary tumour removed and her central line put in. Ev was in the OR for over eight and a half hours. Mike, my Mom and I all waited and paced and tried to distract ourselves with Netflix in between updates. I don’t think any of us really took a breath until the surgeon came into the room at the end of the day and told us the surgery was a success. They had managed to remove her entire primary tumour with clean margins. I cried and hugged them and we all, for a moment, felt a sense of relief until we remembered that stage four metastatic meant this was only the first of many steps towards getting Evelyn better. Prior to going into surgery we were told by friends who work at the hospital that we had the dream team. The anaesthetist was a favourite of many of the surgeons. The surgeon we were told, had made Neuroblastoma his sub speciality and had an extremely skilled hand. Our oncologist is arguably one of the best in the Children’s Oncology Group. We were (and continue to be) so thankful for the skilled people we have with us on this journey. I am choosing to share a photo of Evelyn I snapped post op. It is not a pretty photo, nor is it one I have previously shared publicly. But I think it is important for people to see some of the ugly in this journey. We spent 8 days in hospital recovering post op. The first four, Evelyn was on an epidural pump to manage her pain. It was several days before she could do anything more than a slight sit up in bed. But even in those early days she was strong and determined and let us know quickly the spirit in which she planned on fighting this battle. I often say that as parents we set the tone in our home, but in those early days of treatment I think it was Evelyn who let us know through her incredible strength and sense of humour that we were going to be ok. #neuroblastoma #pediatriccancerawareness #beboldgogold #childhoodcancerawarenessmonth