cabenson | Update

My sister just called-

It's a very aggressive, rapidly growing tumor that involves her vagina, uterus, is attached to the back of her bladder and is putting pressure on her ureter. They could not determine whether it has involved her colon yet because it is just too large. These characteristics point in the direction of malignancy. She's one week shy of her 13th birthday.

We'll know more once the path report gets back. She is looking at aggressive chemo and possibly radiation in order to shrink the tumor to a size where they could remove it. Our family trees are riddled with cancer, we all know that we are walking time bombs, but I thought it would at least hit my generation first.

She should go home tomorrow from today's surgery. She's a tough ass kid, but even the toughest of us struggle to maintain our composure at this moment. I see these kids at work every single day, and I forced myself to become sensitized to it so I could do my job objectively. But can we ever truly be objective when it comes to children?

So now we pray for strength, grace and courage to face this battle with all we are and all we have.