initial pathology update!

Another whirlwind of a week over here! Thanks so much for your prayers, encouragement, patience, and support. We continue to feel thoroughly enveloped in community.

And we have updates!

-Surgery recovery is going well. I definitely tire out real fast and things take significantly more time, energy, and attention that I’m used to. And also progress has been more rapid than we hoped for. Joy has been deeply supportive in every possible way. I can’t begin to scratch the surface at the moment on that. So much love. The girls have been navigating everything well with her support and the support of so many others. Outpatient supports around physical, occupational, and cognitive therapies are all underway and the goal/expectation is total recovery over the coming months. 

-Initial pathology labs are just back and mostly really good news! The big picture…this is a very rare tumor (less than 1,000 cases in the entire country diagnosed each year). Yes, it's cancerous and will regrow at some point and not just disappear. But the surgery was very successful (90% resection) and the growth rate is likely to be so slow that the best approach right now is probably monitoring (ie regular MRIs), not yet treatment.

-While there are many, many people to mention/thank, I have to mention my brother, Josh, who has been at every Dr. appointment/follow up/conversation and provided invaluable perspective and support for myself and Joy through all this. Apologies to the rest of the world that I somehow managed to win both the spouse and big brother lotteries…it really doesn’t seem fair.

Next step is a referral (that’s in motion), where we'll talk with a neuro-oncologist about all this more. And any next steps would be made in consultation with a tumor board of additional experts involved. 

So for now...focus on surgery recovery, gratitude for community and incredible outcomes, waiting on further pathology (which will further clarify all this) and get the referral scheduled and a monitoring schedule established. 

Everything still feels like a whirlwind of emotion from all angles. We’re definitely still finding our footing and working to understand all kinds of scopes of things, from surgery recovery and practical lifestyle changes (it’ll be months before I can drive for example), to big picture “how do you re-engage life after such a perspective altering experience”. It is overwhelming and hard. And we consistently find our needs met. We are so cognizant of this wonderful community we’re surrounded by that’s been so willing to help us navigate it all.  

Thank you doesn’t come close. But it’s what we’ve got for the moment. We’ll continue to update as we learn more. And we’ll rest in gratitude as we continue toward healing and health.