12/17/25

Since Zeke’s hospital stay last week postponed surgery, we were excited to know that our doctors managed to find a day in their schedules to do it early this week. The date was settled on 12/17 and we spent the next few days soaking in moments as a family and trying to avoid Zeke getting sick.

On surgery day we said goodbye to our pets and arrived at the hospital around 11am to start the check in process. The case before us ran late so we had to wait until around 2pm for the team to take Zeke back. Because of the surgery he was unable to eat anything after 7am, so he was getting more fussy the longer we waited. He finally asleep in his mother’s arms around 1:30pm. The anesthesiologist came to get him around 2:30pm and we were able to hand him over to her calm and quiet. Shortly after- we were updated that he was all smiles when they brought him back and he went to sleep easily.

After about 2 hours of prepping Zeke for surgery (IVs, fluids etc.) the surgeons finally began working on Zeke. The next 8 hours felt like an eternity for us. We received updates every 1-2 hours by the OR reassuring us that Zeke was doing great and continued to be stable.

Around 10:30pm we got a call from the head surgeon who stated that the surgery was done and she wanted to meet up to give us an update. She met us at Panera bread, with a big smile on her face and a very calm demeanor. She said with an exhausted smile, “everything is good, we took it all out, and everything went well.”. She showed us pictures of the tumor and said that the two lesions on both kidneys were non existent so they didn’t have to cut more into the kidneys to remove those. The whole tumor was removed as a whole with no spillage of the cells anywhere! Also, the horseshoe kidney was separated, so now Zeke has two separate kidneys. The surgeon was very happy with how the surgery went.

We met up with Zeke at the pediatric ICU where he was waiting for us, extubated, and a little fussy coming out of the anesthesia. This first night was a VERY long night for all of us. Zeke was up every 5-10 minutes throughout the night because of the pain. This night was especially rough for mom since we had been awake for nearly 24 hours and Zeke only wanted the comfort of mom.

Eventually by 0800 the next day they were able to find the therapeutic dose for all of his pain medications and Zeke and mama were able to get some much needed sleep. Zeke still remained very fussy and whiny because he was super hungry but we were allowed to give have some Pedialyte to help.

We’ll spend another day or two in the ICU and then move down to the oncology floor where Zeke will finish his recovery. The tumor was sent to Pathology so tests can be run to determine what kind of cancer cells are in the tumor, the stage of his cancer, and what his chemo plan should look like post surgery. These results can take around a week. We will update everyone once we know more.

We’d like to thank everyone that’s reached out to us the last couple days and to EVERYONE all around the country and world that has been fervently praying for Zeke’s journey and the surgery. God truly held him in his hands throughout surgery and guided the surgeons hands perfectly. Praise God for the mercy he has shown on Zeke.

The biggest hurdle has been overcome, the tumor is out.

Praise. God.