Ulyan's Spinal Cord Tumor Surgery

Neck pain.  It’s not something you really give much thought when you’re a guy that goes hard, having a job that can be labor intensive and a love for being active.  That was the case for my brother in law Ulyan.  He experienced neck pain for a couple of years and chalked it up to his active lifestyle.   That was until the beginning of this year when he started to experience symptoms of numbness, tingling, and burning in his neck, chest, and arms. 

By June his symptoms seemed to be occurring more aggressively so his wife Nadia made a few phone calls and got him into Dr. Turner.  The doctor not liking how quickly his symptoms had come on ordered an MRI on his cervical spine.  A few days later he had him return for a full MRI of his back. 

On June 29th after the two MRIs, Dr. Turner diagnosed Ulyan with a spinal cord tumor at C5, C6, and T1.  Spinal cord tumors are very rare occurring in less than 1,000 people in the US a year.   With that news Ulyan and Nadia met with several different surgeon’s who all confirmed he needed surgery immediately.   Without surgery Ulyan would continue to regress physically eventually loosing his ability to walk.     

 On October 7th he will be undergoing surgery at MD Anderson in Houston, with Dr. Rhines and his surgical team.  He will be in surgery for about 10 hours.  If all goes well Dr. Rhines feels that he will be able to be discharged after two weeks. 

 The doctor said his recovery could be anywhere from 3 months to a year.  During that time he will be relearning daily activities such as walking, getting dressed, driving, and many other things that we do daily with no thought.

 Ulyan is a hard working family man whose world is God, his beautiful wife Nadia, and three amazing children Aleks, Aaliyah, and Elijah.   Providing for them mentally, emotionally, and financially is what he does selflessly every day.   He works hard so Nadia can be home with the kids.  As his diagnosis came as a total surprise there was no time to prepare or save. Your donations will help this family with the stress and strain of medical bills, travel expenses, their regular bills, and other daily expenses during Ulyan’s time down.  I know they will be humbly accepted with so much appreciation. 

 Life is full of struggles and hardships.  If we all help one another in times of need through prayer and giving it makes the load a little easier to bear.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, for your prayers, and donation.  
-Emily Alherimi


-