Thanks to everyone who sent positive thoughts and passed along their well wishes regarding little Libby. After an incredibly intense weekend, Libby has wowed everyone with an awesome start on her road to recovery. (Thought I might as well start with the good news first...)
Sunday morning, Libby's MRI results revealed that she had a very rare form of eye cancer that affects 1 in 20,000 children under the age of 4. Libby is just shy of 17 months. Fascinatingly enough, in the waiting room there was another Elizabeth Cliffe (Libby is short for Elizabeth, in case you didn't know that...) only a few months apart in age, who also suffered from the same rare condition. What are the odds?!
Libby went in for surgery right away on Sunday afternoon and had both the tumor and her right eye removed. To everyone's huge relief, the tumor hadn't spread to her other eye or to her brain -- thank God!! -- and the doctors sound pretty confident that it's a non-spreading type of cancer, although her spinal fluids will be tested for due diligence.
I'm told that the other children who had similar surgeries that day slept most of the night away, hooked up to IV's and only drinking occasional sips of water or juice. Meanwhile, Libby awoke fully energized. She had a couple bottles of juice, a couple bottles of milk and even some yogurt. The doctors ended up removing her IV because she just drank and drank and drank.
No doubt these were the most devastating, sleepless few days in both Jay n' Cheryl's lives, and yet once everything had been said and done, there was still no rest to be had. By the sounds of it, as late as 10:30 last night, Libby was happily playing with all the toys she could get her hands on, completely oblivious to the traumatic experience she had just been through.
I love Cheryl's Facebook status which announces that "what Libby lacks in eyeballs, she makes up for in real balls." Ha. It's amazing how resilient she has been.
From what I've been told, the surgeons inserted a ball into her socket. Then in about 6 weeks (I think?), there will be another operation where something similar to a contact lens will be put in front of this ball, and it will be attached to her muscles, so it will look and move like a normal eye.
While it's sad that Libby had to lose one of her pretty peepers, it's such an enormous relief to know that she probably doesn't have cancer elsewhere. It also seems that she may have always been blind in that eye since birth, so to her nothing has really changed. She can soon go on living a completely normal life, which is just so, so wonderful!!
And now you know!
Whoa...intense. That must have been so scary for you guys too. Thank goodness they caught it soon enough.
ReplyDeleteOh Mel, what a huge relief to know it has not spread! I am sure the whole family is breathing again now. What an incredible little girl!
ReplyDeleteYay! What a fabulous update to a really crappy situation. And way to go Libby to really just take it in stride. (I'm sure there's a lesson for grownups in there somewhere...hmmm... must stop complaining about anything and just get on with it...):)
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to add that her spinal fluid test results came back last night cancer free!!
ReplyDeleteJeremy - For sure. I think Sunday was the longest day ever, waiting between phone calls for an update. And at one point, wires accidentally got crossed and no one called to say that she was out of surgery. That was definitely a terrifyingly long wait!
Michelle - Yes, such a relief! Jay was saying they felt 10,000 times better on Sunday night after her surgery than how they felt on Saturday. She really is an incredible little lady.
Linsey - Absolutely, I think there's certainly a lesson for all of us to learn. If the smallest child can go through such a traumatic event and happily return to her toys only hours later, then what does that say about how the rest of us act when we're having an off day.