Eat up before we starve you again.

Eve must sense that she will have to be NPO any given day, without notice. She certainly has been packing it in this past week.

For example, one morning after our barely 26-pound child finished a bowl of oatmeal, she ate another entire bowl of oatmeal. Did I mention this is the kind of oatmeal with added fiber? Then onto the second course: two bowls of yogurt. Next up, two bananas and an apple. Finally, three cheese sticks. Oh, and let's wash it down with a tall glass of skim milk (because she's watching her figure). That should hold her over until lunch, right?

In fact, she ate so much the morning of our meeting with the surgeon, it looked as though her tumors had grown back and then some. I wouldn't be surprised if we find stretch marks on her stomach.

The surgeon talked to us about his plan of action. He thinks it is very unlikely he will be able to save any of the right kidney, and not just because there are so many tumors in it. The biggest challenge is trying to save the artery (that pumps blood into it) and the ureter (that sends urine out of it). Because if the entrance and exit are compromised, well, what's the point of even having a kidney in there? It would kind of be like Jack Bauer's daughter Kim, who adds next to nothing worthwhile to the plot line but always manages to get in someone's way.

So, he'll probably have to remove the entire right kidney. The doctor also said that if he hadn't seen Eve's MRI from October, he would never have known there were lesions on her left kidney. He really had to look hard to find them on the most recent scans. If he doesn't feel anything abnormal when he goes in there, he will probably not take anything off of the left one.

Surgery day is set for Thursday. Time TBD. (We won't find that out until Wednesday.) Tomorrow is another pre-op appointment where labs will be drawn and we will meet with the anesthesiologists. Eve's blood will be cross-matched so there will be some on-hand during surgery in the event it is needed. We will also find out how her hemoglobin is looking in case she needs to be transfused before Thursday.

After the pre-op appointment, we are to report to radiation-oncology to discuss possible radiation therapy after surgery. Of course, we won't know if Eve will need radiation until after the pathology report comes back, but in case she does need it, the doctors want to make sure we know all the details so she can start as soon as she resumes chemotherapy. Every parent's dream...gut your child and then radiate what's left of their insides while pumping poisonous chemicals into their bloodstream. Dream, nightmare, whatev. I get it; life's not fair. I used to understand it on a much more superficial level when I questioned why I have zits AND gray hair.

I can only imagine that the tumors shrinking have made more room for food. And with Eve being very close to shedding that extra kidney, imagine how much more room there will be! I mean, with two kidneys, she managed to eat two servings of yogurt, two servings of chicken and rice casserole, and a half a piece of cake before pushing the dessert away and yelling, "SALAD PLEASE!"

And that's just one of the reasons why Eve is that kid who makes your single friends want to go make babies.