Lisa's Brain Tumor

This past weekend turned out to be incredibly draining and hard on my whole family. We got some bad news from my sister on Friday.  Lisa has been having migraines for a few months now and it was starting to make her sick at night so she went in for an MRI on Thursday. Her doctor told her they'd get back to her with the results by the next week, however, Friday morning she got a call that something had showed up on her MRI and she needed to go to the hospital right away. It turned out to be be a large, 5cm x 9cm diffused tumor on the right side of her brain and she would need to have brain surgery as soon as possible to remove it.

She was admitted to the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center Neuro-ICU on Friday night and the neurosurgeons had her scheduled for brain surgery on Saturday morning. We were able to visit on Friday night and she was in good spirits and acting like normal. She was upset that she would have to have her head shaved so they could operate so I brought her some cute hats to wear while she was in recovery.

That night her doctors decided to postpone surgery until Sunday morning so they could put her on steroids to help reduce the swelling in her brain and do some more MRIs. The biggest concern was if the tumor was malignant or benign, if she'd need to have chemotherapy and radiation afterwards,  as well as how badly the tumor was diffused into the other parts of her brain.

On Sunday morning, about 8am, she went under for surgery.  My extended family and many friends held a special fast for her on Sunday and we are so thankful for everyone's prayers and support for our family and my sister that day. It was a pretty emotional morning for all of us while we waited for the outcome of her surgery. Her husband Cody was able to keep everyone updated via Facebook and texting. She was in surgery for almost 5 hours and the neurosurgeons were able to remove most of the tumor. The surgery went really well with no complications and she was awake Sunday night for us to visit!

Cody let us know that initial pathology reports found that the tumor is a low to intermediate grade astrocytoma. The full pathology report will let us know by Wednesday or Thursday. Cody says that if it's intermediate, then she'll need to have radiation and chemotherapy. He also said that with this type of tumor, it's impossible to remove all of it without removing her healthy brain tissue and since they want to preserve as much brain as possible, some of the her tumor will remain and she will have to semi-annual MRIs and doctor visits for the rest of her life.

Dan and I went down again on Sunday evening to visit her after the surgery and although she was groggy from the anesthesia, she was awake and able to talk with us. She kept wanting to see the pictures of her brain that her anesthesiologist had sent to her husband Cody during the surgery and kept telling us that her head hurt. I think it's to be expected, Lisa!  Dan and I discussed on our way home how amazed we were by awesome doctors and technology that allowed them to operate on Lisa's brain, remove a tumor, and that she could be awake for us to talk to just later that day! Modern medicine is truly a miracle!

Cody let us know that on Monday she was much more coherent . She suffered about 12 hours of memory loss so she still though it was Sunday but she was able to eat and move around a little. She is continuing to do great! We are so relieved to know she's  recovering quickly!

Thank you again to all our friends and family who were so kind and thoughtful this weekend. I know it helped to have so much support and prayers on her behalf!

To Lisa, Cody and family-We love you!