I spoke to Marianne, the scheduler from CHP, a little while ago. Everything is set up for Tuesday, December 2^nd. We will head to Pittsburgh on Monday. Andrew has to be at the radiology department at 6:30 Tuesday morning and has a CT (of his chest, abdomen, back, neck, and head) scheduled for 8:00. Then we will meet with the oncologist, Dr. Wolman, at 9:00. His PET scan is scheduled for 10:45 back in radiology. Poor boy has to be NPO (nothing to eat or drink) after 5:00 in the morning so I am sure he will be very hungry! I am going to double check, but I was happy to hear that Andrew will not need IV access. Instead, he will have to drink (well, normally he’d have to drink it…we can put it in through his g-tube) the contrast or whatever it is they will be using for the scans.

I have left a message for Patty because I have a bunch of questions. I know that most of them won’t be able to be answered until after the results are in but I am trying to get an idea of how long we will need to be in Pittsburgh so that we can make other arrangements for Dominic and so that Mom has an idea of how long she will have to be out of work and so that Mike can decide if and when he will join us in Pittsburgh. I don’t know how long it will take to get the CT and PET results back and I don’t know whether or not we will have to stay there until they do. I am assuming the answer to that is yes so that if treatment is necessary, it can be started asap. I am hoping Patty can give us some idea. I know that Dr. Mazariegos wants the PET done in Pittsburgh and for Andrew to be followed by the oncologists there, but I wonder, if treatment is necessary, if we will be able to do that at home. Again, I know these are all questions for when we meet with the team once the results come back.

We cherish messages from our visitors. We love to get messages, so take a moment to write a note!! We will read them to Andrew as he grows so that he can understand how many people loved and supported him through this challenging and exciting time.