Prayers are answered!

I woke up this morning with a positive attitude that we would handle whatever came our way today...with gratitude. It worked! I found that I was genuinely grateful that we had caught this infection before it turned into anything else and grateful that we were able to take care of it so quickly, and with a trusted surgeon.
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Meghan and I arrived at the hospital by 8am and we spent the next 90 minutes going through all the pre-op procedures. We were waiting in OR #3's prep room while the anesthesiologist had me sign all the consent forms. There were about 8 support staff in the OR waiting for the surgeon to arrive. When Dr Butler arrived, he explained the procedure to the staff. Then he walked over to Meghan to show the nurse where the infection was, and he just stared at Meghan's head. He looked at me and said, "This incision does not look as unhealthy as it did yesterday, it lookes as if healing began over night. I don't think that I want to open it up. Let's just watch it and see if it heals completely on it's own." No arguments from me! So we left! And we are leaving the prayer request exactly as it is. Please let her body be able to heal fully from this infection using it's own inner resources. This afternoon, we headed back to MGH to begin the first of 29 rounds of radiation. A photo simply doesn't do this mammoth contraption justice. The entire machine is about the size of a house, most of it can not be seen at any given time. This is a photo of the gantry (the white rotating delivery system) but most of the work is done outside of this room. First, in a synchrotron, hydrogen atoms are separated into negatively charged electrons and positively charged protons. The protons accelerate within a vacuum tube for a determined amount of time, increasing their energy. Meghan's proton energy would be around 250 million electron volts--the amount needed to reach the depths of her brain. As the protons leave the synchrotron, they are focused and steered by magnets through a beam transport system into the "snout". The snout is visible in the photo (within the steel box) and it delivers a pencil sized stream of protons into the exact location as determined by over 40 hours of mapping by professionals. The gantry that you see in the photo, rotates 360 degrees, thus allowing the physicians to choose the least damaging entry point for the treatment. This is the main reason that we chose Proton radiation: It enters the skull at a low dose, picks up speed until it explodes in the correct location. There is no exit dose to do more damage therefore they can protect the more vital functions of the brain.

It was pretty intimidating for Meghan to be inserted into the center of the gantry but the worst part really was the immobilization device itself. She was bolted to the table so that she couldn't even move a millimeter. I could tell that she was very apprehensive about being like this for 20 minutes (the radiation only takes 2 minutes, the rest if prep-work). She couldn't breathe deeply and the mask hurt her face. But she was an absolute trooper and stayed calm throughout the entire procedure. The majority of children require full anesthesia each day because they just can't tolerate it. Meghan is truly my hero, in so many ways: She is the teacher and I am the student.