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Scratch that. It's NOT pneumonia. Jillian has some sort of "mass" in her chest cavity. It has squished her little lung and pushed her heart and esophegus way to the right. It fills her entire left chest cavity and extends into her abdomen. The doctor says this did not happen over the last week.

The plan is to have a bunch of specialists look at everything tomorrow and perform another CT scan and an MRI. The doctor says they don't want to do anything tonight unless it is an emergency. The doctor says "This is serious."

Please continue to pray.

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It is a tumor. It is likely only 4-6 weeks old. It is too large to remove and we are facing chemotherapy to shrink it. They are saying that if left alone it would likely kill her in 3 days.

I have family coming to keep the kids and I am leaving for the hospital shortly.

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Ok, I am bringing my computer but am not sure if I will have a connection. I willleave this window open so Kristina can update as needed.

The good news is it is NOT lymphoma. They are doing an ultrasound right now and will do a biopsy shortly. They said it does not appear to be as vascular as they first thought. That gives me hope that they may be able to remove it.

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this is katie's friend, kristina. i am at the house with the kids. katie just called. they did an ultrasound to see if jilly's heart could stand surgery (cuz it's been smooshed to the side) and depending on the outcome they will take her in for a surgical biopsy. details to follow....

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I HAD A BIG LONG UPDATE TYPED AND MY COMPUTER ATE IT MY COMPUTER IS NOW ACTING WONKY I AM GLAD THAT KRISTINA ALREADY POSTED AN UPDATE WE WON"T KNOW ANYTHING UNTIL TOMORROW AFTER THE BIOPSY

I AM SPENDING THE NIGHT HERE I AM BLESSED BY ALL THE PRAYERS HERE AT THE WS AND HELP HERE IRL

I THINK I MAY BAN KRISTINA FROM UPDATING BECAUSE SHE MADE ME CRY

I AM PRAYING SPECIFICALLY THAT THE TUMOR WILL BE SHRUNK TOMORROW MORNING WHEN THEY GO TO DO THE BIOPSY EITHER **GONE** OR SMALL ENOUGH TO OPERATE **NOW** AND THAT THEY WILL FIND IT TO BE BENIGN

JILLIAN HAS BEEN CONSISTENTLY RUNNING A TEMP OF ONE OH ONE (CANT USE NUMBERS RIGHT NOW) AND JUST FIVE MINUTES AGO THE NURSE WAS SURPRISED TO FIND IT HAD DROPPED TO ONE HUNDRED HAS GOD BEGUN HIS HEALING ALREADY????

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JILLIANS BLOOD TRANSFUSION IS DONE AND SHE WAS FEELING DOWNRIGHT PERKY THERE FOR A SECOND

TWO HOURS AND COUNTING JEFF SHOULD BE RETURNING TO THE HOSPITAL SOON

JERRY AND SANDY ARE STAYING WITH THE KIDS

I"LL UPDATE WHEN WE GET BIOPSY RESULTS AND I PLAN TO HAVE GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE TUMOR

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jillie is in surgery now. surgeon says is one of 3 things, rhabdomyosarcoma, pleuropulmonary blastoma or germ cell tumor. surgeon said last night that she doubts if it would be benign, but we are praying for that. katie slept off and on for a couple of hours and is running on adrenaline. it is 6:30ish here now (mountain time). i'll keep you posted.

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biopsy done, placing PICC line (long-term IV line) in ankle, doing head/body CT to check for metastasis (spread) of cancer. katie and jeff together in room waiting for her to come back in another hour or so. jillie's asleep and hopefully dreaming about meadows, horsies and fields of flowers.

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katie said anything you want to mail to her you can mail to me at 12718 W. saint moritz lane, el mirage, az 85335. still nothing new to report. jillie is at phoenix children's hospital's ICU.

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Kristina will write a detailed update this evening. She was here when the oncologist came in. It is cancer in the "small round blue cell tumor of early childhood" family. We will have a specific name on Monday.

Chemo likely to start Tuesday. We will be here at least a month. I am dedicating my brain power to logistics right now.

I'll be updating my blog with pictures as soon as Kristina writes my update for me.

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Things are bad guys. Options are dwindling. I sent the in laws to visit "just in case".

There is NOTHING I need. Please do nto send care packages as that is just one more thing Kristina to deal with. Alot is falling on her. Please hold off. If Jillian ends up receiving chemo and plan A happens I will definitely appreciate all of yoru cards and gifts but right now they would be a burden.

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i walked into the room and was stunned at how gravely ill she is. mrs. professional health care worker (me) was unprofessionally shaken. wow. i whispered to the nurse, "i am trying not to freak them out, but this is really bad" and she said, "i know, and i am trying not to freak them out either". she is laying there with extremely labored breathing with only one lung and on high levels of oxygen with another unit of blood hanging. sooo... moving on... oncology (cancer doc) says they will do nothing until monday when they will test the bone barrow (blood producing stuff inside the bones) and do a bone scan see if the cancer has spread. it doesn't appear to be anywhere else in the body (i.e. brain, liver). the plan is to reassess after all info. is gathered and then formulate a treatment plan which would start with using chemo to shrink the football size tumor over the course of a month or so and then resecting (removing) it. she will remain inpatient for the next month. then she will be on long term chemo for 9 months to 3 years on a sometimes inpatient, sometimes outpatient basis. after i left, her breathing became worse and she became combattant because she couldn't breathe and had to be sedated on a couple different occasions. as you can imagine, it is very scary to come out of anesthesia and realize you can't breathe well and to feel confused and MAD! her breath sounds in the remaining lung have worsened and she now has fluid over there as well. katie left to come home for a while to be with kids and regroup and she and i talked about how it seems to us that jillian may likely not make it until the tumor shrinks. she is preparing for the worst and we both hope we are wrong. if she doesn't improve, they will need to go in with a needle and drain out the fluid at the top of the tumor to ease her breathing. they don't want to do that unless they really have to because her heart is so compromised and they don't want to put her under anesthesia. but... they may have too. they may also need to put her on a ventilator, we will just need to wait and see. katie is crushed and heartbroken but Christ's Peace is evident to her and she is holding it together very well. jeff is a rock and is so loving and tender with his baby girl. i was so proud of both of them today.