In November 2021, Sam began having some of the same symptoms she had prior to her December 2020 operation to remove a cancerous brain tumor (headaches and blind spots in her vision). Since November, she has had multiple MRIs and visits with her doctors to decide on the best course of action. The MRIs showed something was growing in the exact same spot where her tumor was removed. The questioned remained, was it cancer growing back or radiation necrosis (dead tissue caused by the radiation)? Sam finally decided to have another brain surgery in order to determine what exactly was causing the problems. At 5:00am on Friday, 15 July, Sam and I drove to the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) where Sam underwent her second brain surgery in the past 18 months.
The day before the surgery, Sam had a few pre-op appointments with her doctors, including one where they put these little round markers on her face to help with the next day's mid-operation MRI. She was told not to take the markers off until the surgery was completed the following day.
Creating some humor out of a serious situation.
The surgery was a success and Sam's surgeon was optimistic that the problem was radiation necrosis, NOT cancer, but we wouldn't know until the pathology results came back the following week.
The incision from Sam's 2020 brain surgery (staples).
The incision from Sam's 2022 brain surgery (stitches).
The patient care was much better this time than it was for Sam's previous surgery, which took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when it seemed like the medical personnel were doing everything they could to avoid all unnecessary contact with the patients. This time, Sam received multiple bed baths (see photo above), the nurses washed her hair a couple of times, and one nurse even braided her hair (see photo below).
Sam enjoyed the jello again.
Our friend, Dan, stopped in to bring flowers to Sam and say hello.
The young women in our ward (our church group) sent the "Queen" award to Sam.
I made this video for our children while they were at Grandma's house.
Let's go home! 2:06pm on Sunday, July 17th
Wednesday, July 20th: The pathology report was posted, but we couldn't understand the laboratory terminology. So, we stayed busy while we waited for an in-person meeting with the doctor the following week. We quietly celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary (July 20th).
July 20th, 2013
Our 10-year-old neighbor was playing outside with us the day before our wedding anniversary. She found out about our anniversary and decided to bring this cute, thoughtful card over to us the next day.
Diana doing some stretches with Sam
I took Penny and Diana to the trampoline park. Diana heard the "Surface Pressure" song from the movie Encanto and she started walking around flexing her muscles.
We made chocolate pudding (dairy-free, delicious, and "healthy"). Here is the recipe:
We played in the sprinklers during the two days we are allowed to water each week. There is a water shortage in Utah, which is why we are only allowed to water two times each week.
Diana, Douglas, Addie, Petra, Penny, and Roman waiting in line to dump water on their heads.
Savannah and Penny dumping water on their heads 👆
Douglas dumping water on his head 👆
We took the kids indoor rock climbing.
Diana showing her "tough girl" face.
We celebrated Pioneer Day (24 July - a holiday in Utah) with our neighbors.
Diana and Penny waving sparklers.
We celebrated my 43rd birthday (also on 24 July).
Penny with the fabulous pumpkin cheesecake made by one of our neighbors. We didn't have a "4" candle, so we used a "5" candle instead. I often feel 10-20 years older than I am anyway.
Recipe for the pumpkin cheesecake:
Sam, Penny, me, Diana, Luke (our delightful neighbor).
Tuesday, July 26th: We finally received an explanation of the pathology report. We met with Dr. Burt, Sam's radiation oncologist, this morning. She told us small clusters of cancer cells were found within the larger mass of radiation necrosis (dead stuff from Sam's previous radiation treatment). So, Sam will undergo five treatments of low-dose radiation spread out over the next couple of weeks to make sure those clusters are eliminated. Dr. Burt does not believe Sam needs to change her usual cancer treatments at this point, but she and Dr. Jensen (the surgeon) will confer with Dr. Buys (Sam's primary oncologist) before a final decision is make. And of course Sam does not want to alter the treatments either.
It is true we were hoping for a totally clean pathology report, but knowing it could have been much worse, we are happy with the outcome of the surgery and comfortable with the next course of action.
A huge THANK YOU to Sam's excellent regular doctors (Doctor Buys - the oncologist; Doctor Jensen - the neurosurgeon; and Doctor Burt - the radiation oncologist) as well as her team of caring nurses (Kaylee; Danielle - a traveling nurse from Colorado; Crimson; Violet; Erika; Lilly; Morgan; Gwen - who has more than 10 other family members with variations of the name Gwen; Amber - Sam knows Amber from the center where Sam receives most of her infusions); Gladys (from Peru); Rachel; Sadee; Alexia, Anna (she's from the Netherlands and she introduced herself as "Anna, as in Elsa and Anna from Frozen"); and Lexi.
Another huge THANK YOU to all of our friends and family members for your fasting, prayers, and other acts of kindness for Sam and our family. We continue to be the recipients of much love from all over the country, from people of multiple faiths, and from our Heavenly Father. We are blessed!
Prayers for Sam and you, and your precious family. Some day we will know why such good people have to go through such hard things! Your blog is so well written and positive. I'm also impressed with how you show such sincere gratitude to the care givers and knowing each individual name.
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