Pathology's good!

After getting out all the visible tumors, the neurosurgeon sent samples of each into two different pathology labs. All 4 tumors came back as grade 1 Juvenile Pilocytic Astrocytomas . Broken down: cancers are graded between 1 - 4, depending on the spread and rate of growth, with grade 4 meaning it has spread to other body systems and is growing aggressively.

Sada's first big tumor was a JPA, too, so luckily the cells haven't differentiated to something else. They also haven't travelled down her spinal cord yet, so we're still at grade 1. The neurosurgeon was really wondering if the top tumor was a combination of different types of cells because there were two textures that were obviously different while he was removing it. But since everything came back the same, it means oncology will still reject us, we're back on the "watch and wait" plan through neurosurgery to see if there is more regrowth, and Dr. Daddy can keep refining her protocols until she can go a year between MRIs. A new scan every 2-3 months gets old (and expensive) really fast, in spite of the in-house movies and prizes.