On October 20, 2008, Lauren underwent abdominal surgery to remove a tumor that had become massive and was causing extreme pain.

At 12:00 noon, my Mom called very upset and said that Lauren had just gone into surgery and that she might die during surgery. This was very hard to hear. Right before Lauren was to go into surgery that morning, the surgeon reviewed the most recent scans and then came into her hospital room and told her mother and father (my brother), that the tumor was very large and had grown behind her kidney and all the way up her back and attached itself to her aorta. The surgeon said that there was a chance that Lauren would bleed to death during surgery, and that she would not be able to save her. Of course, this was terrifying. They then talked to Lauren about the situation. The surgeon said that this was a difficult decision to make so quickly and offered to reschedule the surgery to the following week. My brother said that they did not have that much time. Lauren called for a vote. The surgeon did not vote; Lauren's mother voted no, and everybody else (Lauren, my brother, Lauren's boyfriend, Lauren's stepmother, Lauren's brother, the oncologist and the social worker) voted yes. So……Lauren played a few games of hangman with her brother and father, kissed and hugged everybody, and rolled herself down the hall in her wheelchair and into the operating room. She is such an incredibly brave person.

Two hours into the surgery a nurse came out and told everyone that the tumor had been unwrapped from the front and the sides of the kidney, and the surgeon was now beginning to work around the back side and up to the aorta…..the part that she was afraid of. A few hours later, they let everyone know that the tumor had been successfully removed. It had grown all the way up to the aorta and was pressed against it but had not yet attached! Miraculous, really!! The tumor was as large as a football and weighed 5 pounds. The surgeon said that it would have killed many other people, but Lauren has more room internally because she has fewer organs. What if they had waited a week? Chances are that the tumor might have attached. Obviously, the right decision was made…..God was watching out for Lauren.