Final Surgery Update

Well, Samantha’s surgery was a complete success! We were so scared after meeting with the surgeon this morning, he didn’t have much confidence that he would be able to remove the entire tumor…but that is exactly what he did! With his expertise and the help of some very sophisticated equipment, he was able to go in, cause absolutely no neurological damage and remove the entire tumor from her head. We are just so pleased with the results! Sammy is in the ICU now and is doing so well, the nurses have already fallen in love with her sweat personality and best of all she is moving both sides with ease and is talking with no trouble. We had expected the weakness on her right side to worsen initially, but she has already gained some strength. I was also worried that brain surgery would in some way change her personality, but she has already demonstrated that she is her old self. She wanted to eat fruit snacks this morning and she wasn’t able to eat anything due to the surgery, but I had told her that after the doctors take the booboo out of her head, she can have some fruit snacks. Well she was barely awake and I told her that I was so proud of her, that the doctor had fixed her booboo and she bolted upright in bed and asked if she could have her fruit snacks now! That’s my girl!The doctor indicated that he still did not think that the tumor was cancer, bBut we won’t know for sure until the pathology comes back in the next couple of weeks. We will still need to meet with the oncology team to determine if any further treatment is necessary because the surgeon did indicate that there were some stray tumor cells still in her brain…so some sort of therapy may be necessary, but for the time being, she is out of danger and we have plenty of time to figure out what treatments are necessary if any.I want to thank everyone for their support through this and ask that you continue to keep Sammy in your prayers as we still may have a long road ahead of us, but this surgery couldn’t have been more successful. I really believe that is due in part to all of your positive thoughts and prayers…thank you for helping to save our girl!I plan to continue to update this blog with Sammy’s progress so if you are interested in following her please do!THANK YOU ALL!!!