Wednesday 4th November 2015- Operation very successful! Leo the Lion has an incredible will to live despite everything! He still keeps on putting 200% into all the battles!

This time last week I thought I was going to the hospital to pick up a clear scan of Leos and pick up discharge papers..I never would have imagined that a week later we would be in a different country, Leo would be undergoing another major brain surgery operation by one of the nest neurosurgeons in Europe to remove another big tumour! Mind you I could never ever have imagined how the last 2 months of my life would have been….it has been so surreal and it is still not over yet.

Last night a nurse tried to take some bloods from Leo it was so hard as he has been poken and prodded so many times that they were running out of veins to really use but eventually they managed to find one to extract the blood.

This morning we relaxed and enjoyed the time with Leo. We were told he would go into surgery at about 11 or 12pm so we wanted to make the most of the time with him. We took him for a bit to the play area. Leo was acting a bit strange this morning and he was constantly trying to put his fingers down his throat, and then he was biting his left arm and then crying as it hurt, he even made teeth marks in his arm. It was very strange. I asked the neurosurgeon about this and he said it could be due to the pressure caused by the tumour on the brain which is causing these weird actions.

Leo was taken in at about 11.30am this morning, and I carried him down to the theatre room where I got to hold him while they gave him the sleeping gas. It was really sad and as I said bye to him and whispered in his ear that he has to continue fighting and being strong, there was a small part of me that wondered if that would be the last time I saw him alive. I managed to hold it all together. We were told the operation would take a minimum of 5 hours.

We decided to go into Liverpool city and have a walk to clear our heads and get some lunch as we needed to be strong for Leo! It was sad to see people pushing their kids around, and there were people singing and dancing on the street and I said to Jorge that all I wish we were pushing Leo through the streets he would have loved all the entertainment.

We got back to the hospital after about 4 hours and there was still no news. About an hour later the nurse said he was out of the operation and they were doing another scan and then he should be in recovery. About 1.5 hours passed and we were getting a bit worried….there was no more news yet.

About half hour later the neurosurgeon came to talk to us, he said the operation went as well as it could have. They thought they removed all of the tumour but after the next scan they spotted another part which was hiding so they had to go back in and remove that. Thank god for the Intra MRI scan which they have here and nowhere else, otherwise that part of the tumour would have been left. So all of the tumour got removed and Leo got his clear scan! He needed a blood transfusion but that was all fine as they had already cross matched his blood type.

The surgeon showed us the images of the scans and it is amazing the amount of his brain which has been damaged. My poor baby has just suffered so much. He said that the tumour had grown about 20% more in the last 9 days….it was growing at some speed and the surgeon is sure that it is cancer.

Leo was intubated for a short while and when they removed the tubes he was breathing fine and brought up to the normal room. I was amazed by how good he looked, he opened his eyes wide and was trying to talk! He said ´vamos´ lets go in Spanish and some other words!!  He was already trying to grab the tubes from his veins out of his arm and to remove the bandage on his head within half an hour of being back in the room!!

He was asking for a drink and drank loads of juice without a problem. He was trying to smile but I think his face is a bit swollen so it was hard for him. As Jorge said it is like he just went in to have a tooth removed, not major brain surgery!! Incredible! I cannot thank the nurses here and the surgeons here enough! That is another huge obstacle that has been overcome.

Now we need to wait for the lumbar puncture results and the biopsy results to see what type of tumour or cancer this is and if it has spread to any other parts of the body. They will do another scan on Leo on Friday to confirm it is still clear.

Now he just needs to get rid of those cancerous cells in his brain then he is free from this monster! Easier said than done…but Leo still has his strength and is still putting up a bloody big fight to whoever is giving him these challenges in his life.

This evening there was a smell of burning and the fire alarms went off! I was panicking a bit thinking how the hell would we move Leo from the top floor of this building with all this equipment outside! But thank god it was a false alarm, maybe there was a problem with the air conditioning or heating system who knows.

Going to be a long night tonight as Leo´s obs are being monitored every hour! So no sleep for me. I don´t care my baby boy is still alive and still fighting!

Don´t forget about the girls skydive this Saturday! and the fun day for Leo in the Isle of Man. Then on Sunday a fun afternoon at The Bistro, Pueblo Laguna!

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