Today was long and rough. We met with 3 doctors to discuss the plan for getting Max better. First, was his surgeon, Dr. Scaithe, and he explained to us how the surgery will go and helped us get it scheduled for tomorrow. He's the chief surgeon there at Primary Children's, so we know he's in good hands. They will have to make a pretty big incision on his side to get the tumor out. And then they will put a port in his chest that will be used for giving him chemotherapy. Next was the oncologist/hemotologist. Dr. Mase and Dr. Barnette. They explained to us how the chemo treatments will go and about the side effects. It will take at least 20 weeks to get through the chemotherapy. Next we had to sedate him again and do another CT scan on his chest to make sure the tumor didn't get to his lungs yet. Thankfully, it hasn't. We got home tonight and packed bags and sent big brother off to grandma and grandpa's house to stay for the next few days. It's so hard to think that Max has this disease because he is so happy and playful and so full of energy right now. But, I'm so grateful that we have found it before it got worse. I feel like I held myself together well enough today. I'm trying so hard to be strong and positive for him right now. It's hard though. I just have so many emotions going through me right now(anger, sadness, despair, hope) I feel like I just need to turn them off for a while so I can get through the next few days. I have every hope that everything is going to be okay in the end. Here we go....

 This is what the port that will go in his chest looks like.

 This is his doggy he got today for being such a trooper. He's obsessed with doggies.

The day our world turned upside down.

Yesterday, May 14 , 2013, our lives changed in a huge way. My little Max started having really painful stomach aches a week and a half ago. He is usually such a happy and active little guy, even when he's sick, but this was different. He would cry for hours and be writhing in pain. I felt so helpless because nothing I did or gave him helped him feel better. This went on for a few days until I finally took him into the ER on Friday night thinking maybe he had swallowed something he shouldn't have like a coin. He's always finding coins and I have no idea where he gets them from. I wish it would have been something like that, instead, the doctor felt around his stomach and felt that his liver was enlarged. They did an x-ray just to make sure. They sent us home and told us to get in touch with a pediatric GI the next week. So Monday morning I made an appointment with the pediatric GI. Tuesday morning I called his regular pediatrician, Dr. Cornish, who we absolutely love, and he wanted to check out Max himself. After checking Max out, he told us to go to the hospital and get an ultrasound to see what was causing his liver to be so big. At the ultrasound, they found a mass on his kidney's that was about the size of a grapefruit. Now I really started loosing my calm. They told me we needed to do a CT scan and that we'd have to have him sedated for it since there's no way a two year old, especially mine, is going to hold still long enough. If you've never watched your child be sedated, it's scary. I don't recommend it. They did the CT scan with no problems and even did the contrast to get a really good image. That's when I started to hear them talking about "high priority" and talking in hushed voices. Now I was really scared. But I still told myself it was nothing. It had to be nothing. This is my baby we're talking about. We got to a recovery room and Dr. Cornish called me back with the results telling me that the presumed diagnosis was a Wilms Tumor and that it is cancerous. Now my world completely fell apart. Thank goodness the pediatric nurse was right there to hold onto me and let me sob on her. Nate was just getting off work and hurrying to the hospital as fast as he could. Thankfully, Nate is such a calm, steady support system, cause I couldn't have handled if he broke down too. They released Max as soon as he woke up and we headed to Dr. Cornish's office to discuss what would happen next. Dr. Cornish is so positive and was very reassuring that Max would be okay in the end, but he even said that it was going to suck going through the process of getting him okay. He made an appointment for us for Thursday to go to Primary Children's hospital and meet with a surgeon and a cancer doctor. And that's where we are at for now. At least we had today to try and have a normal day before the craziness starts. I just wish I could stop crying. I'm so grateful for all the love and prayers that have been offered and for the amazing support everyone has shown so far.