Bible Trivia on Xbox

Pam and I have a few games we play together.  Most of them are on the Wii, but this is the one and only game I can get her to play on XBox.  It has really tough old testament trivia with cool mini-games and an awesome christian soundtrack.  Think some Toby Mac while running through the parting of the Red Sea or some Chris Tomlin while being chased by lions.  We've been known to have a marathon session of this and both have our favorite games.  There's also a "zonk" in each round called the "wrath of God" that makes you lose all your points from that round.  We suck at the trivia, but some of it is really about some really obscure characters in the Old Testament.  I got this game years ago at Best Buy for $5 and was the best entertainment expense I think i ever spent.  Hope they come out with more games like this!

Science and God

I've become a fan of Neil Degrasse Tyson recently.  He has an uncanny ability to take difficult scientific topics and distill them down so that anyone can understand them.  He reminds me of a scientific version of Andy Stanley, well except for the fact that he's an outspoken atheist.  He gave a talk called, "The Perimeter of Ignorance" at a conference that I listened to the other day that really got my wheels spinning (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTFwDpr14Bo).  In that conference he mourned that more scientists we're atheists because he saw faith as a hindrance to scientific discovery.  He pointed to prominent example after prominent example from Newton to Einstein where scientists reached a scientific roadblock they couldn't figure something out and they essentially just gave-up, called it miraculous and said it must be God, only to have a future scientist be able to explain the previously explainable.  He said they "basked in the majesty of God" only have their discovery stop and he wondered how much more a Newton or Einstein could have contributed without having the "parachute" of a God hypothesis.

I guess this is my frustration sometimes with science and church.  I believe God and science can coexist and can actually have a synergistic relationship.  What I don't like is when people look at a tough problem and don't even try to solve it because it appears too hard and just fall back on the miraculous.  I believe there are miracles, but I also believe God setup a systems of natural laws, many of which he is eagerly awaiting for us to discover.  In ancient times people got sick from evil spirits, but we now understand germs.  We also now understand gravity, the atom and hundreds of other former mysteries.  I think it's a shame when people use faith as an improper justification of ignorance for themselves or their children.  It's almost like there's a fear that science will minimize God, but what I see is quite the opposite.  All you have to do is look at something like Hubble or the fact that scientist have discovered more stars than there are grains of sand in all the deserts and beaches to see that science can enhance God's majesty, not diminish it!  I think he smiled when we saw these images for the 1st time and probably is saying, "I can't wait until NASA gets more funding and they build a bigger one, it'll blow their mind!"



Neil DeGrasse Tyson did share one quote from Galileo that I love, “The Bible was written to show us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.”  I couldn't agree more.  Let's believe in God, but let's also use the intelligence he's given us for the most good possible.

Extra Mayo

So today and tomorrow my dad is at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.  They're essentially doing assembly line medicine with my dad spending an hour or two with a list of docs and tests all looking at his case from a different perspective.  It's a bit of a mystery as to why his platelet and red blood cell count hasn't come up yet combined with his blood clot issues along what chemo drugs to look at next since he didn't respond well to this one.  One school of thought with counts this low is to essentially "wait it out" and just use transfusions to bridge the gap.  The trip to Mayo is somewhat of a double check to be sure they're not missing anything else that could be causing it other than his bone marrow being slow to recover.

Tomorrow Pam and I fly to Wisconsin for a nice visit and to support my dad for the FVBTC walk (details below).  It will be great to see my parents and my sister and brother-in-law.  My dad is still all there mentally and loves talking Packers and playing cards, so I'm looking forward to an enjoyable visit.  Keep my dad and the Mayo Clinic doctors in your prayers so that they can find anything there is to be found and that my dad gets the best advice as to how to move forward.

From previous post: On Saturday I'll be running for a different reason up in Wisconsin.  The Fox Valley Brain Tumor Coalition (FVBTC) will be holding their annual race.  The race benefits their work to support the patients of brain tumors and their caregivers.  It's a really cool race in that the patients themselves are encouraged to participate!  Some may only make it 50 feet and others just a step or two, but that's not the point, it's all about support and encouragement for what can be a very depressing disease.  My dad's goal is to make one lap, about a half mile.  I have no clue how far I'll go, but all that matters to me is being there to support my dad.  If you're interested in learning more about the great work of the FVBTC or donating, my dad has setup a race page below:

http://www.fvbtc.org/participant/home.php?pid=137

Government Debt

So one of the huge issues for me in politics is the debt.  I see it as robbing from future generations in order to live beyond our means in the present.  Not only that, it's against Christian values as you can read in so many Bible verses.  In fact many people don't know that the Bible talks about money that almost any other topic!

I was really impacted by Andy Stanley's Recovery Road series.  You can watch/listen to the great messages from it at http://recoveryroad.org/.  In the series Andy encouraged us to let our faith determine what we support politically and be sure what/who we support is aligned with Biblical principles.  It was amazing how much the Bible had to say about today's problems as things weren't much different back then as the quote shows below:

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public
debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered
and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed
lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of
living on public assistance." Cicero , 55 BC

Things didn't end well for Cicero.  According to Plutarch, a Roman Centurian slew him, then cut off his head. On Marc Antony's instructions his hands were cut off as well; these were nailed and displayed along with his head in the Forum. Antony's wife Fulvia took Cicero's head, pulled out his tongue, and jabbed it repeatedly with her hairpin in final revenge against Cicero's power of speech.  Guess some things never change, people never want to hear the difficult truth, even if it leads to the downfall of their society like the Romans.

I was really impacted by the graph below.  Some people say things like "cut welfare" or "tax this group or that group", but you can see by the charts below that if you cut EVERYTHING other than defense, medicare and social security we're still way in the hole.  Also, if you DOUBLE the amount of taxes everyone pays we're still in the red.  It let me know just how dire things were.

So I guess this year I hope the public will be realistic.  If someone promises you lower taxes AND higher spending, no matter the party, beware.  Let's be good Christians and good stewards for both our benefit and future generations.

Learn more about 

us debt.

Running for a good cause

So on Saturday I ran the Roswell 13.1 "alien themed" half marathon.  I missed a critical component of the marathon experience however.......training.  I hadn't run in about 4 weeks with the wedding and honeymoon. It was rough, but I survived.

On September 8th I'll be running for a different reason up in Wisconsin.  The Fox Valley Brain Tumor Coalition (FVBTC) will be holding their annual race.  The race benefits their work to support the patients of brain tumors and their caregivers.  It's a really cool race in that the patients themselves are encouraged to participate!  Some may only make it 50 feet and others just a step or two, but that's not the point, it's all about support and encouragement for what can be a very depressing disease.  My dad's goal is to make one lap, about a half mile.  I have no clue how far I'll go, but all that matters to me is being there to support my dad.  If you're interested in learning more about the great work of the FVBTC or donating, my dad has setup a race page below:

http://www.fvbtc.org/participant/home.php?pid=137

Dad at home!

Dad is improving and is now home! Hope to restart more aggressive tumor treatment (almost forgot about that part) this week. In other news Port Douglas Australia is beautiful! Awesome honeymoon trip.

Good news on Dad

Hi from Sydney! Awesome day yesterday at opera house and zoo! What's more awesome is that dad's white blood cell count is up to 1.3 and he should go home tomorrow and start Cyberknife treatment next week. Although we're already having an awesome time, this lifts some weight and let's us enjoy ourselves just a bit more down here. Well at a McDonalds on free wifi in Sydney on my iPhone, time to go back to being a tourist, but wanted to share the good news!

CaringBridge

If you want to stay up to date with my dad's treatment my mom has created a CaringBridge site too.  Here's the link http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/tmancosky.  In the way of an update he seems to be tolerating treatment well, but it sure is making him weak.  He's scheduled to start a radiation break next week and the hope is he'll regain some strength and be feeling good for our wedding!

Multiplicity?

The weekend was crazy.  Saturday we ran a 4 mile race followed by driving to Knoxville to meet with our minister.  Sunday was church, firework shopping, wedding cake tasting, driving home, engagement pics and then flying to the Midwest for work.  Well I'm in Iowa for work all week.  I look out my hotel window at a corn field, go figure.  It's a crazy big week with a bunch of experiments to perform.  The last couple of days have been miserable as we're not working in a climate control area and temps have been between 90 and 100.  It's supposed to cool to 80 tomorrow.  I'm here until Friday and then head back on Sunday.  Between that, wedding planning and my sister and her husband coming to my house in 10 days it makes me wish there was more Doug to go around sometimes.  It made me think of this classic movie:


Multiplicity  |  Andie MacDowell  |  Harold Ramis  |  Michael Keaton   | Movie Trailer | Review

In other news dad seems to be tolerating treatment well and so far side effects have been limited.  Hopeful it continues that way while simultaneously being highly effective!

Bucket List

So I guess things like my Dad's tumor make you think even more about cherishing each day.  My dad also went to the doctor ASAP with the first hints of something strange, that and taking care of yourself also are important points.  Most people who know me know I have a pretty healthy bucket list and also travel a lot for work and pleasure.  I have a personal goal to hit all 50 states and 7 continents by 40.  See the map below for how I'm doing so far on the states:


create your own personalized map of the USA

I'm pumped about Pam and my honeymoon.  Of course the primary reason is to relax and celebrate the start of our marriage, but it also has the frosting of going to Australia and Korea.  So far so good.  Alaska and Antarctica will take some work and the second one may be a solo trip, but think I can do it.

So what's on your bucket list?

Today is D-Day...The Battle Begins

So dad had his first meeting Friday with a radiology oncologist and post op follow up with the neurosurgeons. It was confirmed that Dad has a very aggressive brain tumor, but all three MDs have dealt with this tumor in the past and they are hopeful that with very aggressive treatment that positive things can happen.

Although this tumor is classified as a Grade 3 tumor, it is equal to a stage 4 cancer. The treatment plan already started Friday with dad being fitted with a radiation mask and an MRI mapping of his head and the tumor. Next week he will start daily radiation treatments Monday through Friday and we will also be seeing a medical oncologist to start simultaneous chemo treatments twice weekly. The plan is to have daily radiation for 6 weeks, then 2 weeks off, then possible cyberknife treatment for 1-2 weeks, then resumption of daily radiation for another 6 weeks along with the chemo the entire time. Depending on how Dad tolerates the above, this treatment could last 4 to 6 months or longer - shorter if he can't tolerate it or depending on how the tumor responds. The breaks are well timed in that it should allow him to come to my wedding and go to KC when my sis gives birth to his new grandson!

The oncologist told my mom that when she walked into the exam room where they were waiting, she thought she had entered the wrong room. She stated that after studying Dad's MRI's, CT's and the functional MRI from Milwaukee, she expected to find a patient mute and paralyzed on the right side sitting in wheel chair. Again, all are amazed at how large the tumor is and how few symptoms he has.  Mom says dad has diffidently gotten weaker in the past week, with more near falls and on rare occasion - some slight confusion, but for the most part Dad is Dad. Maybe a little quieter too.

We are still waiting for more reports to come back from Mayo Clinic regarding the chromosomal makeup of the tumor to know for sure which chemo drugs will work the best. My parents remain optimistic and are extremely grateful for the doctors positive attitude. They were informed by all the MDs that things will probably get much worse before they get better as there will be a lot of side affects from all of the treatments, but they continue to LIVE each day to the fullest truly believing that God has a bigger plan.

So today my dad's battle begins. Very few places in modern life are most men called upon to be warriors, but in this case he is. This isn't a battle of his choosing, but today starts day one of being a warrior.

Have lunch with God.......bring chips

A great little message I got from my parents:

A little boy wanted to meet God.  He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with a bag of potato chips and a six-pack of root beer and started his journey.

When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old man.  He was sitting in the park, just staring at some pigeons.  The boy sat down next to him and opened his suitcase.  He was about to take a drink from his root beer when he noticed that the old man looked hungry, so he offered him some chips.  He gratefully accepted it and smiled at him.  His smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered him a root beer.  Again, he smiled at him.  The boy was delighted!  They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but they never said a word.  As twilight approached, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave; but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old man, and gave him a hug.  He gave him his biggest smile ever.

When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face.  She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?"  He replied, "I had lunch with God."  But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what?  He's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!"

Meanwhile, the old man, also radiant with joy, returned to his home. His son was stunned by the look of peace on his face and he asked, "dad, what did you do today that made you so happy?"  He replied "I ate potato chips in the park with God."  However, before his son responded, he added,  "You know, he's much younger than I expected."

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.  People come into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime!  Embrace all equally!

Have lunch with God.......bring chips.

My Dad's tumor has a name

Just a short note to let you know that we finally have a name for Dad's tumor. It called an "anaplastic oligodendroglioma - Grade 3". So far we've been told that it is an aggressive tumor, but it is one that the doctors are familiar with and it does respond to chemo and radiation. He meets with an oncologist Thursday morning at the Cancer Center, and then with his 2 neurosurgeons Thursday afternoon to discuss options. As far as we know, surgery has been ruled out as it would be too risky at this time with the issues with speech and his right leg. Chemo and radiation seem in the cards and seem to do well with this type of tumor. His doctors are strong believers in doing no harm to healthy brain and hence the desire to try other things first rather than something that could leave him with long term deficiencies.

This was the type his doctors hypothesized it might be from the beginning and is somewhat of a rare one. That's kind of a good thing though as the most common is also the worst. You'd never call a diagnosis of a malignant tumor a relief, but this type of tumor and its treatability is better than what it could have been given some of the characteristics.

For the most part Dad continues to do well although he is having more and more episodes of right sided weakness and near falls. It is very frustrating for him when he can't walk as steady as he would like. We've been advised that the weakness will get worse before it gets better, but he and my mom are committed to taking one day at a time.

If you Google this tumor it's got some serious and scary stuff associated with it. I'm comforted, however, that many people do well with these for a LONG time and his docs are some of the best in the country frequently getting outcomes multiples better than average due to their cutting edge treatments and techniques. Everyone is an individual and stats can often be misleading.

We all continue to request and thank you for your thoughts and prayers. As I learn more, I'll give updates.

Dot Dot Boo-Boo Stickers

So what is a brain tumor in the family like from a 2 y/o perspective?  Actually pretty funny, refreshing and heartwarming.  I remember a month ago now when we first found out and flew to KC to ride with my sister and niece.  We were getting ready to leave KC to go to see my dad and Ella said, "Papa has a boo-boo in his head, gonna try to fix it."  Guess in a lot of ways it really is that simple.  To her he's just the same old grandpa (papa), he just has a boo boo same as she has half a dozen miscellaneous boo-boos on her arms and legs right now.

Ella wasn't there in the surgery prep area, but one of the things they did was put fiducials (little dot stickers that show on an MRI) all over his forehead.  They use these in surgery to guide them.  We texted Ella's mom a pic (I'll save my dad the grief of putting it online).  Ella loves polka dots, she calls them dot dots and she likes to put band-aids on her scrapes, she calls them boo-boo stickers.  Ella saw the pic and said, "Papa has dot dot boo boo stickers!"  It kind of stuck and is one of my lasting memories of the surgery day.

I'm so happy Ella is around, she's been great relaxation, perspective and comic relief.  I guess we all handle stress differently.  I read and research, anything you need to know related to brain tumors, I'm your guy.  My one sister shops.  My dad sleeps.  My mom does chores and house projects.  My other sister walks and plays cards.  Speaking of my mom, she recruits others to participate in her stress relief.  We moved like a half ton of dirt and tilled ground that resembled concrete so holding onto the tiller was like riding a bull sometimes.  Oh well, mom was happy and it was a good workout, just wish I hadn't participated in my sister's stress relief too and gone for a 6 mile walk.

Still no word from Mayo (more on that later), but dad seems to be doing well.  He has a daily TV, radio and reading schedule now and seems in good spirits.  Wait. Hope. Pray. Repeat.

Wait. Hope. Pray. Repeat.

So my dad's surgery went well. He was alert a couple hours later and released the following day. His only complication was a lot of tiredness. The docs did a good job of disguising a pretty large incision on his head. The hospital also gave the family cell phones that would ring from the operating room with updates, pretty awesome customer service! My mom knew everyone there and they were all awesome. Was so happy to be there, never had the "waiting room" experience before. So this overall sucks (becoming a family phrase), but it's had a silver lining of bringing us all together even stronger.

What wasn't awesome was the preliminary pathology report. Looks likely to be malignant and the presence of suspected necrotic (dead) cells and lots of change from the last MRI probably means it's pretty aggressive. The docs and longtime pathologist at the hospital said it was really unique looking and they're sending it to Mayo Clinic for an opinion. We hope to know more tomorrow (Tuesday) and are trying to be optimistic. We'll find out what it is and look at treatment options knowing he's under great care. He has a moment here and there, but still doing pretty good for a guy with a tumor, so the doctors are proceeding with the "do no harm" principle. So many times you hear of people with memory, speech and movement issues with aggressive tumor treatment and his docs are trying to avoid all that. We played cards and ate a lot (steroids he's on gave him a Killer appetite much to my mom's dismay). At times he seemed a little down, but for a tumor, brain surgery and a murky biopsy I can't fault him for channeling his inner Eeyore once and a while.

The whole family was in town and we had and extended family BBQ (for which I did all the grilling) on Sunday. My 2 y/o niece came in and she was a blast. Pam and I registered at Bed Bath and Beyond. Some walks with my sister and dog and some heavy garden work for my mom made for a well rounded weekend.

So now we wait, pray and hope for the best. Seems to be our theme for the last month, but will probably be our continued theme for the next few weeks too.

One verse

Saw this quote in a the other day from Wisdom Hunters:

Children remind us of the God we have forgotten. We’ve gotten so sophisticated with our Savior that we miss Him.

I guess it made me think of organizations like One Verse the work to translate the Bible.  So often we get lost in these inconsequential rabbit holes and miss the most important stuff.  The question below is interesting.  Here in America we have tons of Bibles, but yet very rarely read them.  We'd rather argue about prayer in schools than pray ourselves.  So here's to focusing on the big stuff of loving others, reading God's word, prayer and telling others about a great savior.  In the end, one verse, John 3:16, is really the one that matters.

Back to Wisconsin next week

So it looks like my dad is scheduled for surgery Wednesday, May 23rd.  They're doing two procedures, one to take a biopsy and one to put in a "drain" to try to drain the cyst-like part of the tumor and get it smaller and easier to deal with.  They're very happy they did the special MRI as it showed the tumor is semi-intertwined with the control of his right leg and also a portion of the brain dealing with verbal communication.  The hope is by shrinking it first there will be more options as to not risk impairing either of these functions.

If you've ever wondered what's involved with brain surgery, here's some quick animations with what they're going to do:

Stereotactic Biopsy

Ommya Drain Procedure

So these procedures aren't like a craniotomy or anything, but it's still brain surgery.  Minor brain surgery is a pretty big oxymoron in my book!  The real big deal will be the pathologist's report and finding out what exactly this sucker is and therefore how to go about fighting it.

My dad still is in great physical shape and his spirits seem good.  The doctor let him go back to work for this week and that's really seemed to help too.  He was super excited about that, go figure.  Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

Headed Home Tomorrow

So tomorrow we're headed home for a few days.  Looks like it will be a bit (late in the week) before decisions are made, so we can get back to ATL for a bit to work and get some wedding planning in.  Family time has been good.  I've spent some quality time talking with my 2 y/o niece about everything, she's a good listener.  I know mom has liked having us all around and I've been able to use some of my work skills to help too.  She's a nurse, but certain parts of this are all new to her.  Part of my job is to research and come up to speed on a new topic quickly, separating the reliable and unreliable, so that's essentially what I've done for some new crazy medical stuff.    A lot of my reading has made me more hopeful, which is a good thing.  The doctor should call them in Wednesday or Thursday with a plan, but they're really taking their time, which is great in this situation.  I expect to be back here before too long, maybe as soon as next week, but I look forward to doing whatever I can to help out!  There’s also a chance now they do something less invasive for a period here since he’s been asymptomatic.

Thanks to everyone for their continuing prayers!

Do we really only use 15% of our brains?

So my dad and mom just left to head to Milwaukee for a high end MRI that actually measures brain oxygen levels to see what parts of the brain control what and what the tumor is near.  I guess this will give them more info about just how aggressive they can be and this test is a luxury in that my dad still isn't really showing symptoms.

The last few days have been great, felt more like a family vacation than a sick visit.  My dad is the same old guy and you'd never guess anything was wrong.  I think this is just what my mom hoped for in being able to have some quality family time before surgery/treatment as, although we're hopeful, we don't know what the future may hold with some of the complication risks.  I'm careful now in how I describe this as a great friend busted me on perhaps being a little too pessimistic about things necessarily changing going forward :)  I suppose things will always be a little different, even with the best of outcomes, same as they were different after my mom's heart attack.  I guess holding everyday with the people you love as a little more precious isn't a bad thing though.

My niece Ella has been awesome on this trip.  She's our little comic relief and a large focus of everyone's attention which has been great.  She's my little shadow and for those of you who know me and kids, you can imagine how awful that must be for me.

My mom works at the hospital and she stopped by today and ran into my dad's surgeon's assistant.  Looks like there's a chance things might move a little slower than first thought.  He said my dad is in a really good place with not having complications.  Many people have seizures or other huge issues before discovering one of these, so treatment often has to be more rapid.  Guess they're taking the measure twice and cut once philosophy and when you're talking about brain tissue that's a good thing!  They're still weighing lots of options and the fact that there are so many we'll consider a blessing.  It could mean things take a little longer to get going though, so an Atlanta return prior to surgery isn't out of the question now.  Some of the recent news has also been more potentially positive (as much as you can tell with non-invasive tests, you still really don't know anything for sure until you get a biopsy), so that's helped personally with stress, sleep and some feeling of normalcy.  We'll know more on timing hopefully later today.

Stay tuned and thanks so much for everyone's love and prayers!

Off to WI via KC

So we're headed to KC tonight.  My little sis is pregnant and has a 2 y/o daughter so she wasn't keen on flying or driving by herself so we're headed there tonight and driving to Wisconsin tomorrow.  A nice silver lining is that my sister has an ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow morning so we'll be the first to find out the baby's sex! No real news from home.  Mom says dad is the same old dad and isn't showing any outward signs other than the impending surgery.  He's getting a specialized MRI sometime this week as the doctor is being cautious because, with no major symptoms, we have the "luxury of time" to figure out the best way to attack this thing.  2 hospitals in the state have this toy, so whoever can get him in first wins.  Other than that, my parents are just putting things in place at work, home and other places for what will undoubtedly be a very different next 3-6 months than what they expected.  Well thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers, it means a lot.

When "How are you?" is a tough question.

So I've never had an experience like today where "How are you?" was such a terrifying question.  People would ask and I sort of felt obligated to be truthful, so figured I'd do the social media blast and get it out there.

Got a call from my mom yesterday letting me know my dad had been hospitalized.  He had fallen a few times the last couple weeks and a CT scan discovered a brain tumor.  He's in good spirits and not displaying any real outward symptoms, but obviously has a long road ahead.  The tumor appears relatively large and fast growing in the frontal lobe.  The latest test today was encouraging, showing that the blood vessels feeding the tumor are all surface and don't go appear to go deep.  He's being discharged today and will head to Madison, WI middle of the week for a specialized MRI to map the tumor so they know what's good and bad so when they go to cut it out they can remove as little good stuff as possible.  They'll meet with the surgeon at the end of the week to come up with the final plan.  They're most worried about his speech and left leg with where in the brain it's located, but you can learn to do those again through rehab.  Oh, and in all the testing they found an aneurysm too, but that's actually a low priority and something to be tackled for another time, guess when it rains it pours, but better to find it now.

My mom is a nurse who used to work neuro and he's got one of best brain surgeons in the country, so he's in good hands.  The surgeon was #1 in his high school, college and med school class, so I guess he's probably a pretty smart guy.  It appears brain surgery is probably my dad's near future, we'll know more in a few days.  I'm still in ATL, but no doubt some quality time in Wisconsin is in my future, probably leaving Tuesday.

He still has his sense of humor.  We were supposed to leave for our annual father-son Las Vegas trip tonight and he seems more upset about missing that than anything.  Mom also said she wanted us to be sure to get up there prior to surgery due to the risk of "complications" to which I heard my dad joke from the background, "Yeah, like I could die!"  My family has kind of that morbid sense of humor in tough times.  So under the jokes I can tell a lot of worry from my mom under a strong exterior, but my dad and family are all trying to stay upbeat.

My prayer requests are that this can be benign, easily removed and that my dad stays positive and strong.  Also for strength for everyone involved as my little sis is pregnant after the last ended in miscarriage, my mom has a history with heart disease and, oh yeah, Pam and I are trying to plan a wedding too, so it wasn't like stress was low to begin with.

Well there's the update.  When I'm worried I tend to shut down a little, so if I seem a little quiet, cut me some slack (some of you will probably call it an improvement!)  Yep, in bad times I still keep my sense of humor too, wonder where I get that from :)  So I'll try to update where I can, but we're not expecting a lot of news for the next few days.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!