I wanted to write a quick update for those that still occasionally wonder about how Jax is doing. It's been a stressful 2 weeks but we got good news yesterday. 

Jax had is regular follow-up MRI on Dec. 6th. We were kind of thrown for a loop on Dec 7th when his Oncologist called with the results; there had been some growth in the tumor since his last MRI, six months ago. The tumor is shaped like a dumbbell with one "end" in his abdomen and the other "end" behind/around his spine (the section in his abdomen is between a baseball/softball size and the other section is golf ball/tennis ball sized). Since his last MRI, each section had grown about 1/2 cm in all 3 dimensions. They went ahead and scheduled a biopsy for the following week to start the process of figuring out the reason for the growth. Jax was put under anesthesia for the biopsy and they used a hollow needle to go in through his back, through the muscle, to grab lots of little pieces of the tumor. They wanted to be able to look at several pieces b/c neuroblastoma tumors can have sections of cells that are more aggressive than other sections, so they wanted to know if that's what we were dealing with - a section that was acting more aggressively and might be the cause of the growth.

Jax's Oncologist called with the results last night and it's good news! The cells in Jax's tumor have matured to being benign/non-cancerous. His tumor is now considered a Ganglioneuroma. We will still do follow-up scans on Jax every few months for another couple of years b/c they still need to watch the size and change of the tumor to make sure it's not causing any issues for Jax and we have to be on the lookout for any symptoms (stomach troubles, problems eating/digesting food, leg numbness) b/c we might have to take steps if problems occur. They are hoping to avoid any more removal surgeries, though, b/c the of the precarious position of the tumor around his organs, adrenal gland, and spine. 

This is as good of news as we could hope for! We'll continue to keep an eye on our little guy but are so encouraged by this news, especially after the stress and worry of the last couple weeks. We are looking forward to enjoying our holiday and wish all of our family and friends a happy one as well!