I’m sorry to have to report some bad news after having a much better outlook just yesterday…
The MRI this morning revealed that instead of the mass in my spine shrinking in response to the antibiotics, it is actually growing (and quickly). It has grown into the cavities around the nerves in my spine even more than before (which explains the increased pain). This is not good news. In addition, they found the bone to be in much worse shape than they expected. It can no longer support my weight in its condition. This is also not good news.
My neurosurgery team has met with the infectious disease team and oncology today. They have come together on a plan (although I’m sure it will go to tumor board Friday morning also). I am going to need an emergency surgery to remove the tumor, the bad bone, and rebuild my spine with some new hardware bits. They are putting the surgical team together now to do the operation on Saturday. I’ll be in the hospital starting Friday for pre-op and more imaging (CT scans) so they know how much and where they need to cut.
They expect to biopsy and/or culture everything they remove from my body to have the best chance at a diagnosis of what this tumor is once and for all. There is some comfort knowing that we’ll finally have that answer. They expect my pain level to decrease quickly when they remove the tumor from the nerves and I should feel better leaving the hospital than when I went in (although that seems hard to believe).
I should be in recovery for about 4 days and home resting after that. When they biopsy all of the material they remove, they’ll know how to treat me further (radiation/chemo/etc.) I’ll be on the IV antibiotics for the foreseeable future. There may also be a second surgery to go in through the front to access the other side of my spine to clean things up there.
This is not the answer we’ve been praying for and not the best of the possible endings we were hoping for. Nonetheless, I know that I am in God’s hands and that he has a good handle on all of this. Miracles are still an option. A benign tumor is also still on the table.