Rachel had surgery today to remove the tumor on her spine. The neurosurgeon wanted to wait until today so that special spinal monitoring equipment could be brought in for the surgery. The surgery lasted about 4.5-5 hours. They were able to remove all the visible tumor plus some extra bone surrounding the tumor site.

Rachel’s numbness is already quite a bit improved since the surgery, though she still needs a walker to get around. An “At Risk of Falling” sign on her hospital room door serves as a sad reminder.

A pathologist was in the operating room to see if they could tell what type of tumor it was but they were unable to tell without doing tests that take time, so we have to wait, possibly for a few weeks. We were told that it appeared to be benign and slow-growing. Since the pathologist didn’t know what type of tumor it was, the surgeon decided not to put in any stabilizing hardware in her spine because that would make future imaging scans harder to read and this could be something that they need to monitor in the future.