How did all this happen? Posted by Justin

Many people that have just started following this blog have asked how all of this happened to Michelle. I thought it appropriate to summarize more or less what brought all this on.

We are pretty sure that it started shortly before we were married. Days before Michelle and I started dating she had a mole on her lower jaw that was removed. The Dr. thought it looked suspiscious and had it sent out for further testing. After a few days and a couple of different evaluations it was determined that the mole looked cancerous but in fact was not. They called it psuedomelanoma. It looked bad but was benign. Five years passed and we didn't give it a second thought until a bump started to form behind and below her left ear. We had a Dr. in Orem look at it and he determined that regardless of what it was that it needed to come out. She went through a very short surgery to remove it it was determined that this tumor was benig so again we felt like we dodged a bullet.
Roughly 11 months later the lump came back along the incision line and we elected to go to a Dr. Hunter at Cottonwood Hospital. He couldn't exactly determine what the problem was but he didn't want to compromise her main facial nerve and given that all signs pointed to the tumor being benign he decided that he would debulk the tumor as much as possible and radiate the remaining tumor so that she wouldn't have facial paralysis. After a couple weeks of pathology andd other tests, Dr. Hunter let us know that the tumor had malignant tendencies and in some ways mimicked melanoma. He than took her back to surgery and had no choice but to remove the tumor, along with the facial nerve. Another Dr. assisted by grafting her seral nerve from her left leg and grafted it in. We thought that margins were clear and it was thought at the time that it was a peripheral nerve sheath tumor. Dr. Hunter evaluated her for several months for follow up. After awhile, she noticed a firmness in her left cheek and aklong the incision line again. Dr. Hunter did a minimally invasive procedure to get samples of tissue to further evaluate. He called about two weeks later and said that the tumor had returned and was appearing to be spreading into her cheek and the surrounding area. He recommended at this point that she be treated by Dr. Bentz at Huntsman Cancer Institute.
We started at Huntsman about a year and a half ago. Dr. Bentz initially consulted her and advised of what he would like to do but always gave us the ultimate decision making power. He has been a tremendous resource for us as a physician and friend. We decided to try a procedure that would remove a big portin of tissue behid and below her ear and bring the skin from her neck up and stitching in place over what was removed. This was roughly a 6 hour procedue and at this point her fourth surgery on this same area. She recovered very well other than a 2-3 bout with shingles that was very painful and caused tremendous swelling on the left side of her face.
Not long after this surgery she formed a loarge blister like lesion behind her ear where most of the problems had taken place before. She went to our family physician and he tried to drain it but nothing really drained. He recommended that we go back to Huntsman. Dr. Bentz took a sample and had pathology take a look, it again was cancer. The decision was made that if we had any chance to beat this thing that a radical resection of all tissue involved would need to go. This included her left ear and her left cheek. Over the course of a 19 hour surgery, the Dr.'s removed the tissue and did a "flap" transfer" from her left thigh to patch in the resected area. This surgery was hell on Michelle and caused her indescribable pain. She again pushed through and overcame this problem and eventually responded well to radiation treatment. We thought that maybe we had this thing beat.
Following all of these procedures, we continued to consult with Dr. Bentz and his team. Scans were done to see if any metastasis had taken place and several spots showed in Michelle's lung and one in her back. We were than handed over to Dr. Akerly, the medical oncologist to determine what could be done to treat the disease. We settled on a more or less experimental treatment called interleukin II. The drug is used to treat people with kidney diseases and cancer. This treatment reqired one week in the hospital and side effects simialr to a bad flu with nausea, retaining water, pain and significant discomfort. She gained roughly 20 pounds during that weak and ended up with some fluid in her lung. After the week in the hospital, she would go 9 weeks with no treatment but would get a scan to determine if it appeared to be working. To our surprise and the Dr.'s, all of the tumors in her lung were smaller and she appeared to be responding to the treatment very well. We decided to go through round 2 of the treatment and through all the side effects, she again did very well.
It was than decided that the best form of treatment for her back would be through radiation. But the problem arose that over a very short period of time the tumor went from the size of a golf ball to roughly the tize of my fist. It was too big for radiation and we were referred to Dr. Yonamura at the University Neurological unit. He performed a surgery that removed two of her vertebrae as the tumor was encroaching on her spinal cord. He did not get all of the tumor and Michelle again had to go through hell on her road to recovering from this surgery. The plan was after the surgery that she would start radiation to treat the remainder of the tumor. She spent 16 days in the hospital and came home, doing pretty well physically. At this point is where my last post begins. Since than everything has gone down hill.
On a more positive note, Michelle recieved so many visitors yesterday and it really seemed to help her out physically. She was able to come out on the porch and visit with family and friends. Although the visits seemed to help, she was exhausted by the end of the day. We are more than willing to accept visitors and I know she loves the company but we ask that if you are going to visit that you please keep your visit brief giving everyone a chance to take a few moments alone with her. She did very well yesterday and I would say that it was probably her best day in the last 4-5 days. We hope to see continual improvement. She has taken her last chemo dose for the next three weeks and is still being treated for an infection that we don't believe exists. Her spirits are strong although her body is extrememly weak. her strength and determination amaze me every day. I do not know anyone that has gone through so much and affected the lives of so many people as she has. I joke with her that if I died that my funeral could fit in a phone booth but there is not a building anywhere that could accomodate all those that love her and that she has affected in her 28 years here on earth. We know that she is in good hands and that the Lord is mindful of her and our family at this difficult time. It hasn't been easy but we know there is a reason for everything that happens and we are prepared for whatever life throws at us.