The Shoiter

***WARNING***Mikey's nude shoulders below...

(picture pre-surgery - notice the bulge on the right side of the picture - his left shoulder)

Back in February, Mikey started doing P90X with his friend David. After a couple weeks, he noticed that his "muscle" was sticking out further on his left shoulder. He didn't have any pain, but something was definitely not right. He was planning on going to an Ortho to have it checked out.

One Sunday at church, Mikey ran into our Stake President (a general surgeon by profession) in the hall. He asked his opinion about a specific doctor. President Christiansen proceeded to ask Mikey what was going on and took a look at his shoulder. He told Mikey that it was most likely a lipoma (benign tumor) and that he didn't need to see an ortho, but rather a general surgeon. Mikey responded, "good thing I know one."

By Friday, he had seen Dr. Christiansen in his office and had his surgery scheduled for just over a week away during spring break. I must admit that I was a little nervous the whole time, especially with my severe tumor phobia.

March 21st was knife day. Mikey's mom came from Boise to watch the kids so that I could be at the hospital with him (THANK YOU THANK YOU!). Everything went remarkably well despite the surprise that the pear sized tumor was all the way through the muscle and attached at the bone. Unfortunately that dramatically increases the chance of re-occurrence. Even though his muscle had to be separated, Mikey managed to treat the pain with only Ibuprofen and even went into the office the following day. Two days later, the biopsy results came back as benign (HALLELUJAH).

I am so grateful this adventure turned out the way it did. It was amazing to think how fast our lives could have changed and taken a different direction. Prayers were said and thankfully prayers were answered.