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!