On JUN 22 Audrey underwent five tedious hours of laser surgery to remove the lipoma from inside her spinal column. The benign tumor had actually infiltrated inside the spinal cord which is obviously less than ideal. However, for what is was, the surgery was a success. Dr. Davidson stated that the instant the top of the four thoracic vertebrate were removed, there was an immediate relief of pressure on the spinal cord as indicated by an increase in amount of electrical activity in the legs and feet. After the tumor was removed, it only got better. After the completion of the surgery there was mention of possibly having to do the surgery again later on down the road if the lipoma decided to grow out of control again. Audrey will have an MRI in a couple months (for the 5th time) to set a baseline for the growth. We shall crown Audrey the MRI queen. If anyone has a right to hate hospitals it's her. The pictures below show the lipoma progression. At 2 weeks old, the lipoma is seen near the marker. At 27 mos, the lipoma has grown nearly 10x the original size severely compressing the spinal cord. The surgery took place next week, with the third MRI picture showing the result. One can see the remainder of the tumor inside the spinal cord.
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| MRI @ 2 weeks old MAR 26, 2010 |
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| MRI discovers tumor JUN 14, 2012 |
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| MRI Post Surgery JUN 24, 2012 |
Audrey has been doing very well after the surgery and can almost fully extend her legs. She does have a slight problem with her right foot angling outward which is due to her hip not rotating correctly. The physical therapist said this should correct itself over time. We built her some parallel (monkey) bars to assist with strengthening her legs and developing balance.
A week after the surgery a Derecho (storm with high winds caused by the massive heat wave) knocked out our power for four days. Dad had flown in the night before so we all took a road trip up to Niagara Falls to beat the heat. We visited the Canadian side during Canada Day on July 1st and then the American side the next day. It was more spectacular than I had expected. Afterwards, we went to the Alleghany State Park and spend some time at the lake before going home and hoping our power had come back on.
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| Stay Puft Marshmallow Woman escorts Audrey to the OR |
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| Daddy acting as an Ipad holder |
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| Keeping whiny butt pacified |
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| Frankenstein Scar... Cool! |
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| Red House lake in the Allegheny State Park |
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| Waiting for the 4th of July fireworks in front of the White House |
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| Visiting Joel Salatin's farm in Western Virginia, dad's idyllic sustainable paradise |
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| Bock... bock.... bock... boggggoocck! |
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| Audrey's magnificent monkey bars post surgery |
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| It almost looks like she can walk! |
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| The bunny and the bear pop up and down. Grotesquely cute. |
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| Hi. |
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| Petting the goats at the Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary |
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| Swinging at the farm |
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| Tour de Fat DC |
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| Audrey's favorite station at Tour de Fat |
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| Shawna busts out her clown skills and defies the ball pit. I wasn't so lucky. |
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| Checking out Niagara Falls |
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| Coldplay unplugged... |
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| Coldplay plugged in. 30,000 wrist bands lit up the venue with "Charlie Brown" |
