Sclerotherapy Procedure #1

Today is a day that JT and I have been anxiously anticipating. We have been ready to get this process started so that we would have an idea of how it would help Will and how quickly we could move forward. I'll get to the long story of all of it for the rest of this post, but for anyone that wants a quick answer...it didn't work. We are pretty upset, but we know that this just marks a possible treatment off of the list and we will continue looking for alternatives.

We rolled Will out of bed this morning and left the house at 5:30 to be at Vandy by 6:00. He kept asking if he was going to get a shot, and I was happy to tell him that he was not (not that he would be awake for anyway). He wasn't too excited, but he got in the car with Woof-Woof and Whiskers without too much of a fight. We got there a little early and went to see the trains - Will's favorite! Then we headed up to the dreaded 3rd floor. (JT and I say this our least favorite place at Vandy. We don't ever seem to get great news here.) He was in a great mood through check-in and pre-op. The nurses and surgery team were are wonderful as always and Will seemed comfortable with them. Dr. Barron came and met with us and explained the procedure again. He was going into Will's lower back to hopefully find some veins that could clot off. His plan was to go slow and just see what he could do. He didn't want to do too much at once since the goal is to help Will, not hurt him. He also didn't want to be too close to the spinal cord. It would take about an hour he said. Will was very brave and drove himself and Whiskers to his operating room (no tears!).

Checking out his car that the nurse brought him.

Off they go to the OR! Whiskers had the perfect spot to ride with him. 

JT and I went to get some breakfast and then headed back. We stopped by the gift shop so JT could get Will "baby Woof-Woof" that he has been wanting. Right as we were getting in the elevator, they called to say Dr. Barron was ready to meet with us. He came in and said that Will was doing great, but he wasn't able to do anything to help him. I think it is safe to say that we both felt punched in the stomach right then. So the explanation was that the vessels on his back/buttock are lymphatic, not venous. You can't clot lymphatic vessels. He went to several different sites, and the result was always the same. These different types of vessels apparently couldn't be differentiated on the MRI.

Baby Woof-Woof

We got to see Will about 30 minutes later. I almost passed him by because he wasn't crying hysterically as with all of his other post-ops. He was sipping on his Sprite asking to take his IV out. We gave him Baby Woof-Woof and he was excited about that. We got him dressed and spoke with Dr. Barron again. We asked if we could go ahead and plan a procedure for the leg since it is obviously a vein, but he didn't seem like he was ready to do that. Will is "complicated" in his mind, so I think he probably isn't ready to attempt to take on Will again until we talk to Cincinnati.

I think that I am so frustrated because I have put Will though a lot since the end of December. We have been to Vandy almost every week for an appointment, lab work, consultations, etc. (I have a post about all of this that I will try to get on here in the next day or so.) I am just trying to look at it as information that we already have to continue moving forward with a new plan.

Thank you for the thoughts and prayers! As always, Will is fine. He was playing normal as soon as we got back home.