AH HA!!  The online wealth of experience has come through once again!  I
went and found the info and a picture and have no doubt in my mind that
what JB has is indeed a Chordoma!  For information on what it is and/or
looks like... here is a link.
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/chordoma.html
 
A big thank you to Dr. Bruce Williams for making this type of information
accessible.
 
Not the best news in the world, but certainly better than all the horrible
possibilities that were running through my mind.
 
I guess maybe the microwave *incident* is most likely just a horrid
coincidence.  I also got a few lessons in the physics in how a microwave
works.  (Some of you out there are either brilliant geniuses or hopeless
geeks *G*)
 
But seriously... all the information helped a lot... thanks for all your
kind thoughts for this little guy (he is SOOOO sweet) and I feel better now
at least having some sort of base of knowledge of what we are dealing with.
[Posted in FML issue 3063]