Lila had a rough last 24 hrs--no food! We discovered that kids will just fall asleep after being deprived of food for long periods of time. As bad as we felt about not being able to feed her, it was a blessing since today she slept most the morning (we were hoping surgery would be first thing in the morning).

Since we got to the hospital Lila has been clingy and calm. You could tell she knew something was coming she wasn't going to like but found comfort in her mothers arms. I tried to use my charm and wit to cheer her up, but she would not have any of it.

When our neighbor, Missy Betts, showed up to help with Lila, she brought a bag of little toys. Lila lit up for a moment and was excited to find a battery operated globe that lights up and spins and some bubbles. She had a few moments of joy before we tried to give her some medicine to relax her. She hated the medicine. She freaked out. Hardly a relaxing moment. After failing to get much of anything in her we gave up and decided it wasn't worth it. After a few minutes she fell asleep on her own.

When it came time to hand her over to the surgeon she was sound a sleep. We were anticipating her crying from being separated from her parents and it being an emotional display of who could cry harder Aleese or Lila. Instead, Lila went peacefully and Aleese had to comfort her mom (grandma's have a soft spot for the little ones).

Surgery timeline:

• 1:45 -- Went into the operating room.
• 1:45 to 2:45 -- Bone marrow biopsy
• 2:45 to 6:00 -- Tumor removal

The surgeon arrived just minutes before 6 and asked us to join him the private consulting room. A smile would have been nice, but I guess surgeons are all business. He got right to the point--Lila did fantastic. She does not need to go the to ICU. The surgeon said things could not have gone any better. We are very pleased! There was no need for a blood transfusion and the doc feels like complications will be minimal if nonexistent. He also feels that she may even be able to leave the hospital in 3-5 days rather than the 7-10 that we were told to expect. For the moment we are breathing a huge sigh of relief.