I’m not quite sure how to tell you this, but we have even better news. As I said we were still trying to process the information we received in the pathology report today, so I wanted to clarify the final diagnosis before I passed it on. I had several questions and I just received a response from the team at Huntsman:

Contrary to the findings of the first two pathology reports, the tumor was not a sarcoma–it’s called fibromyxoma–and it was actually benign (benign as in “Shane miraculously doesn’t have cancer,” not as in “it wouldn’t do some damage if they had left it in”). The surgery was still necessary both in order to remove the tumor (it is known to be locally aggressive and has a significant rate of recurrence if not all removed) and in order to determine the best course of treatment for Shane.

We’re not sure how to explain or understand exactly what we’ve been through the past several weeks–and we know the recovery has just begun–but we do know we have been very blessed by the priesthood blessings Shane has received and by the many prayers on his behalf.

Shane’s still hurting (but grateful for less pressure and the blessed removal of that darn screw stuck in the roof of his mouth) and the recovery will still be a bit of a process (read bear), but he’s hanging in there.

We’re still trying to wrap our heads around all of this, but I thought we should let you know.

p.s. But in case you were wondering, I still hate cancer.