More Good News!

Dr. Chandler, Scott's surgeon, came in yesterday on his day off to see how Scott was doing. First, he took a look at the MRI to see how much of the tumor is remaining. Scott's mom, dad, brother and I crowded around two very large computer screens so Dr. Chandler could show us the comparisons of the MRI taken the morning of the surgery and the one taken the day after. The first image is just shocking when you see the huge area of Scott's left temporal lobe that is taken over by tumor. It had definetly grown bigger since the last time I saw it and I could only imagine how it must have felt for his family to see it for the first time. Then, to the right, we looked at a screen with the image taken after surgery. We could all see the huge hole that was once the ugly tumor and it was beautiful. The surgery went extremely well and almost the entire tumor is no longer visible. I believe it's gone, even though they say that we can never be sure. There is only a very small portion, much smaller than even Dr. Chandler expected, still remaining. Everyone felt relief and joy. What's just as miraculous is that with so much of Scott's brain cut away he is functioning fairly well. We know we do have a lot of rehab work ahead but Dr. Chandler said he really didn't believe Scott would make it through the surgery at the level he's at.

So now it's Sunday and Scott is still very tired and a bit groggy. Like I said earlier, he's struggling with finding words and naming things and still needs extra help understanding. I'm there almost all the time to help him answer questions for his nurses and explain things to him in a way he understands. His eye sight is a little messy because the swelling in that area so I hope that will clear up. He's not having any phone conversation right now, I'm sure that would be difficult and frustrating but hopefully soon.

Really, things couldn't have gone better for his surgery. Praise God!!

Love,
Michele