Letter to Richard's colleagues with background

Letter from Richard to his work colleagues with background

Colleagues,

You may have heard rumors about an imminent surgery for my daughter Lucy.

Some of you may not know the background on this. 

Lucy (7)  was diagnosed with a craniopharyngioma in early 2009 when I joined the division. She has had surgery, radiation, a drain placed in the cyst, and finally chemo last October. On our last scan in June the tumor has continued to grow. 

Lucy has pan-hypopituitarism, small visual field deficits, and recent headaches. Despite these things, she is a healthy and active child with no cognitive or physical impairments. This morning she was asking about what she should do before her CT & pre-op appointment - run a mile, ride my bike, or do mommy's insanity workout video. If I were not a doctor, I would struggle to believe her diagnosis.

She is scheduled for a transphenoidal resection of the tumor at Egleston tomorrow morning. Our doctors give us good hope that they can either completely resect the tumor, or at least debulk it with fairly low morbidity.  They hope she could recover within a few days if the surgery goes as per the norm. I invite your prayers, good thoughts, and whatever else you can throw our way to help that occur.

Thanks for all who are helping me with coverage, being patient when I'm distracted (above baseline), and generally offering encouragement.  I love our division, especially at a time like this.  

We plan to give updates through a website Lucy in Atlanta, in case you want to see how it goes.

Thanks,

Richard