Surgery Finished!!!

Dr. Olivi just came out and talked to us about Matt's surgery. The surgery went well and he got the whole tumor out. The quickie pathology analysis is that the tumor is not aggressive and not overtly cancerous and is possibly a dermoid. Keep in mind that this is a VERY PRELIMINARY finding and the full pathology results will take 3 days. After that is complete, the Docs will be able to determine if the lumbar tumor that they took out tonight is related to the cranial nerve issues that were Matt's original problem.

One thing that is definitely known now is that removal of this tumor will relieve the pressure on his nerves that was causing the weakness in his left leg and his bowel and bladder control problems. We don't know how long it will take for the nerves to heal and for him to get full function back but he is young and that is in his favor. Dr. Olivi said that his recovery from this surgery would be about 1 week.

The game plan for tonight and tomorrow is that he will stay intibated and sedated tonight and possibly part of the day tomorrow. This would be so they can do another MRI to baseline the lumbar area. He could possibly be extibated tomorrow. This would allow them to wake him up.

Overall, this is all very good news and we are grateful to God and the doctors for taking care of Matt.

We are going to be allowed to see him at about 11:30 eastern time, so we are up here waiting on the nurses to settle him in his room.

Thank you all for all of the prayers. He is not out of the woods yet but this is the first positive step toward healing the underlying neurological condition.