April 11th: First news from the Alberta Childrens Hospital

Thank you all so much for your love, prayers and support. We really appreciate all the outpouring of offers for help and promises of prayer.

At this time there is nothing we can really do but wait and pray.

We made up to the children's hospital in good time yesterday and got settled in here. We still don't know much more than we did back in Cranbrook. An MRI is scheduled for sometime later this afternoon, so that will give us a clearer picture of whats going on. Then surgery for removal will be tuesday or wednesday, they are still shifting around the schedules for us. Once it is out we will know what kind of tumour it is and what the next steps might be.

We have a wonderful Doctor taking care of us. Unfortunatly she said that as far as tumours in children go this is a fairly large one. It is on the left side of her brain and pushing it towards the right. Charlotte is getting a bit of steroids to help with the swelling, but it seems to be upsetting her tummy a bit. The nurses are great, although are having a hard time trying to get an IV in her. Apparently red heads have very tough veins to hit and she has bandaids on both arms to prove it. Fortunately another attribute to redheads it that they are stubborn and tenacious, we have seen this in Charlotte and know that this will be an asset in the days to come.

Charlotte still tends to be the cheeriest in the room, we are so very glad that she is blissfully unaware of what is going on. There is a beautiful fish tank here at the hospital that she loves to watch. We are so glad for this facility.

Your prayers are very much appreciated.
Love the Amsings