As a parent, the one thing that we don’t want to hear is that our children are sick. Brandi Resendez thought her daughter just pulled a muscle in her neck.
She was about to find out is that her daughter wasn’t suffering from a pulled muscle, what she found out would change her life.
Alexis Resendez, a 14-year-old cheerleader was preparing for high school tryouts started complaining that her neck was sore. Brandi just assumed it was from all the extra time she had been putting in for tryouts.
As the days passed Alexis’ pain continued getting worse, and Mom grew increasingly suspicious that something was seriously wrong.
Her daughter started losing weight because “it hurt to swallow”. The girl even choked on water! Alexis was exhausted every day, which wasn’t like her at all!
Brandi’s motherly intuition told her it was time to go the emergency room. As any mom would be, she was terrified when the ER doctors explained to her what they discovered.
Alexis had a mass in her neck and chest on her thymus gland. The removal of such a tumor is where things get even trickier because the procedure is usually done with an incision between ribs. Then it’s the surgeon’s painstaking job to navigate ever-so-tenderly around the lungs.
But there is new technology that the family was about to discover how powerful it is. They were given a referral to a specialist in robotic endocrine surgery, Dr. Emad Kadil.
Dr. Kandil performs thyroidectomy and thymectomy using a robotic surgical system. He uses a 3-D magnified view of the anatomy around the glands. This enables him to perform the surgery through a small incision, maneuvering throughout the procedure with laser precision.
This type of surgery allows for faster healing and shortened hospital stays, definitely a plus for any patient!
When Brandi saw Dr. Kandil come into the waiting area she was nervous, but the news he presented to her was just the hope she needed. He told her he was able to completely remove the whole tumor.
“I remember jumping up and hugging him!” she recalled of that glorious moment.
The following day, Alexis was released and relaxing at home and in less than a month the teen was back to flipping and cartwheeling. She even made it to try outs for the cheer squad…… and she made the cut!
Brandi feels beyond blessed that her daughter is back to herself, happy and healthy.
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Article via WGNO
