Great Mother

My son. The labor and delivery have been going well, every ultrasound, color ultrasound, there is no problem. But. About 20 days before the due date, the ultrasound revealed a lump in the abdomen, 41mm*38mm. 4*4CM, which is quite a big lump for an unborn baby. I felt nothing real about this unexpected situation and even felt like it was a dream. After all, after 10 months of pregnancy tests, there was nothing wrong with it, and only in the last half of the month did such a large piece appear, which was unprepared. The last half of the month to discuss whether to stay or not, this topic is too heavy! It's a living, breathing human being! The whole family was inclined to wait for the birth of the child before dealing with it, and everyone held out the best hope that the child would be fine. Fourteen days later, the baby was born, 3.3 kg, and looked very cute. An ultrasound was done on the third day of birth. The results were very unsatisfactory. It was worse than the worst that was expected. The results showed that the child had a mass in the lower left abdomen, solid, measuring about 62mm*42mm*42mm, which was considered to be neuroblastoma with partial invasion into the spinal canal. It was a bolt from the blue. How can I write about that feeling? I had thought about all the possibilities, thinking that even if it was a tumor, even if the treatment was expensive, no matter how difficult it was, it could always be removed. But when we saw the words "invasion of the spinal canal", even without professional medical knowledge, we knew the seriousness of the problem. The whole family fell into the ice water. It was hard to understand why fate was so unfair. Why us? Why us? Why us? Crying, shouting, contemplating, and all kinds of wailing, which was all done silently in my mind, and could not show it, could not put the family into a worse situation. There was no grumbling in the family, and everyone was very positive about it. Taking care of the mother and the baby, collecting all kinds of medical information, contacting every friend and relative who could help that came to mind, contacting hospital doctors, and so on. We were all determined to fight a hard battle. The first MR was done 20 days after birth, but I didn't expect it to be so difficult. Because the machine was so noisy, like a pile driver, the little one couldn't fall asleep and do the test quietly. The child, who had just been born for more than 10 days, left home at 5:00 a.m. and went to a large hospital in the provincial capital, where he was sedated with medication and injections, but still refused to sleep well and failed his first test. This time, he was not allowed to sleep and eat early in the morning, and only when the test was about to be done was he allowed to eat once so that he could sleep well and be sedated at the same time, which was heartbreaking to think about. In any case, the test was finally done for the second time. It took almost an hour, and I was anxiously waiting outside, worried that the door would suddenly open and the nurse would come out and say it had failed again. The test result was even worse than the original one: "There is a soft tissue mass in the left middle and lower retroperitoneum, about 58 mm x 42 mm x 49 mm in size, considered to be a malignant tumor, involving the left lumbar part of the intervertebral foramen and reaching the epidural area of the spinal canal along the enlarged intervertebral foramen, with the dural sac and the left kidney and left psoas major muscle significantly displaced by pressure." Almost a month later, another MR was done in another hospital, and the results were: "Multiple irregular masses in the left paraspinal and dorsal muscular spaces, the largest being about 50 mm × 43 mm, with the mass partially entering the spinal canal through the intervertebral foramen and the corresponding intervertebral foramen being enlarged; the left kidney was obvious and displaced and adjoined to the mass; the abdominal aorta and bilateral common iliac and internal and external iliac arteries were also displaced and The left kidney was significantly displaced and adjacent to the mass; the abdominal aorta and bilateral common iliac and internal and external iliac arteries were also displaced and partially encapsulated. Conclusion Consider retroperitoneal neurogenic malignant neoplastic lesion." The bad news really came one after another, but we were prepared for it, so although we were sad, we silently swallowed our tears. With the test results, we ran through the famous doctors in the province, woke up in the early morning to queue up at the provincial hospital, waited for hours around the door of the ward just to have a few words with the doctor, and had to grab a specialist number for 100 yuan, etc. This was the norm. However, every time we go to the hospital, our hearts become a little colder. Let's start with a brief description of the situation. Neuroblastoma is a relatively common tumor in infants and ranks among the top causes of death in infant tumors. In my child's case, besides the tumor, the most troublesome thing is that the tumor has also invaded the spinal canal and wrapped around the cauda equina plexus of the spinal cord. The two most famous doctors in the province, one specializes in surgery and the other in chemotherapy. We first went to the one who specialized in surgery because we thought chemotherapy would be too harmful to such a young child. He looked at the results and said it was very difficult because the tumor was not just a tumor, it had invaded the spinal canal and involved neurosurgery, he was good at pediatric surgery, but other doctors would have to solve the neurosurgery. After we begged, he agreed to put us into the weekly specialist consultation. After a week of waiting, we finally got to the specialist consultation. When we got to the door early in the morning, there were already a lot of people gathered. A group of doctors was discussing a bunch of cases in a small room, while everyone was waiting outside, and no one said a word. When they finally came out, everyone was scrambling to get as much time as possible to talk to the doctors, and so were we, but we only heard a few simple responses. The neurosurgeon said that the child's foot should be immobile by now. Our primary care doctor said that there was no way to handle this case. It didn't take more than a few words to stop us from pursuing the case, as many others were pestering him. It made no sense! My boy's legs are now normal as can be, with no sign of paralysis at all! Except for a little unnatural trembling at times. We of course continued to keep hanging out and begging him to figure out what to do. He said, "He can handle the outside tumor, but you have to go to the director of neurology first and ask him if he can do the inside of the spinal canal, and I can do the outside only if I can. We had no choice, so we queued up for another week to go to the neurologist. The director of neurology said that if we wanted to do the inside, we should ask the pediatrician to remove the outside before we could figure out how to do it. Then he couldn't bear to see us being kicked around like a ball and spent a lot of time explaining to us the difficulty of the surgery. First of all, dealing with the tumor in the abdominal cavity was not particularly difficult, but it was also a major surgery, and the risks were already very high for such a small child. More problematic was the surgery within the spinal canal. This involves removing the two wall plates of the spine to reach the tools and cleaning them very carefully and cautiously. This process is very risky because, after all, for such a small baby, no one can guarantee whether the tumor will be paralyzed if the nerves are accidentally injured. After the cleanup, the spine could not be held up because the two force-bearing wall plates had been removed, so steel nails had to be driven. Adults are fine with steel nails, but babies are growing and steel nails will not grow and will soon deform the spine, so they have to be re-done every once in a while, and each time is a difficult surgery, a process that is maintained until he grows up. These two surgeries are not something that the average person can sustain. Even then, no one can guarantee that this tumor will not recur. Finally, he also said that with so many patients seeking treatment every day, the pediatrician must be looking for those who are more certain to handle the case, and our case is too risky for anyone to want to take. I'm not sure if he was scaring me, but he was telling the truth. I know the risks of surgery, but even if the doctor is willing to do it, I'm still torn about taking the risk. The procedure took no more than 5 minutes. The doctor said the child was too young for chemotherapy, so go to a surgeon. He kicked us out. This ...... told us what to do? Alas,...... continue to look for a less prestigious hospital, but also back to the city hospital to see, and consulted with foreign hospitals, the views are the same. The less famous doctors, on the contrary, are eager to try, chemotherapy can also be, surgery can also, and hospitals are willing to do it. However, even if chemotherapy was given, it would only shrink the tumor to facilitate surgery, but surgery must not be avoided. This time it was our turn to hesitate, after all, the child was only a few months old. And I am worried that doctors with little fame need to fight for experience and cases to accumulate their skills and reputation, and I don't know if their ability is up to the level. The risk of treatment is greater than not treating ah ...... so to this stage, the road is gone. What we can do is insist on doing an ultrasound every month to observe the growth of the tumor. But what about observation? It started at 4cm and grew to 8cm in 3 months. 8cm, the size of an adult's fist, was stuffed in the belly of a 3-month-old child. I can't even imagine this situation. But by this time, we had forgotten about the existence of his disease and were giving him a happy life every day, just like normal people. Instead of taking the huge risk of struggling under the terrible surgery and living without dignity, we should face the reality and accept the existence of the tumor. No matter how long or short his life is, I hope he will live a happy life. That's why I gave him his name, a single character Yu, meaning he was born with a piece of jade in his belly and to accept its existence. I hope they will get along and live well. Then things started to take a turn for the worse. 8CM the next month, instead of growing to 9CM, it became 7CM! The next month, 7CM became 6CM. the blood flow signal of the tumor, from rich at the beginning, to slightly rich, to sparse. By 6 months of age, another MR was done and it had become 39mm x 30mm. At this point, the tumor was still filling the intervertebral foramen, but the tumor was no longer visible in the spinal canal. The tumor was shrinking! This kind of happiness can not be expressed in words, so much pressure and anxiety, finally got a little relaxation at this time. The day I got the test results were my birthday, so I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present! Thank God, and thank BB for himself. He won the battle and fought for his life. I am so touched beyond words that he has given our whole family a new lease on life. I hope he will go well and live his life with strength in the future. After that, we relaxed the monitoring of the tumor and only checked it once every 3 months. I felt very nervous every time I checked it, fearing that it would come back. Luckily, the tumor slowly disappeared. One year later, a comprehensive checkup was conducted, including an ultrasound, and blood test and various indicators were normal. The ultrasound repeatedly scanned that there was no longer a trace of the tumor to be found. An 8CM large mass had been completely absorbed by his body. The doctor said that neuroblastoma stage 4S has the possibility of self-healing, and is the only type of tumor that can appear to heal on its own. It is the only type of tumor that can heal itself. The literature records that the chance is about 1%. However, the doctor also said that he had never seen such a large tumor completely absorbed. I didn't intend to tell anyone about this, but I'm writing about it anyway. Because, my child, he is my hero.