Update from Justin

Michelle asked me to update everyone on her appointment from earlier today:

We went to the U to talk to her doctor in Neuroscience, Dr. Kenneth Yonemura. Anyway, he had been in contact with Michelle's radiation oncologist and came to the conclusion that surgery would definitely be the most effective treatment option as radiation is not going to be very effective on a tumor this size and this close to her spinal cord. The tumor is in the center of her back, pretty much attached to one of her lower ribs and has encroached into a couple vertebrae in her spinal column. To make a long story short, they are going to have her come up and be admitted tonight so the radiologists can monitor the blood flow into the tumor. There are certain tumors that I guess have a tendency to bleed quite a bit. Of course the tumor Michelle has is this type. They will do whatever they can to cut off the blood supply to the tumor through some procedure with sponges and coils, these are technical terms of course...
She will be home tomorrow afternoon likely and will go back in for surgery on Monday. The surgery will be roughly 8 hours and will include removing the tumor, part of her rib, and the affected vertebrae (probably 3). The plan is to remove as much of the tumor through surgery as possible and than in two or three weeks start radiation to zap the rest.
She will likely be in the hospital for 4-5 nights and will be limited to light lifting (that leaves our baby Colton out) for a couple months. If there is a silver lining to all this, the area of her back that is affected is the middle portion that really stays pretty stationary. It's isn't anywhere where a lot of bending takes place so hopefully this means she will get back to "normal" quickly.
We did ask about the areas in her lungs that were showing up in her last two scans and he couldn't "see" anything obvious. We are hoping this means that her interleukin treatments are working everywhere else and that this will be the last hurdle in her recovery. On Sunday, her dad, brother, brother in law and I will give her a blessing and hopefully provide her with as much comfort as possible as she will likely have a very tough week ahead of her. Thank you to all for your prayers and thoughts on her behalf. You have all been such a blessing to our family and we thank you for what you have all done for us however big or small.
On a personal note, please limit calls to Michelle this weekend as she will be very busy in putting a schedule together for me for next week and getting packed for her week in the hospital. As you can all understand, it is very difficult to go over the same details with every different person that calls. Thank you!!!