In Great Need of Prayer

Friday, Sept. 17, 2010

This has to be a short post and mostly just a plea for prayer. It has been a challenging week.

Wednesday we had an appointment with the oncologist regarding to those lymph nodes that lite up on the PET scan. Mayo had already found them, CAT scanned them and felt that they were not worth a biopsy, so gave us clearance. But Dr. Kareem decided that they needed a further look-see so we went to see the most wonderful woman doctor who is an expert oncologist regarding breast cancer and lymph nodes. She felt the same as Mayo but she has been working with Dr. Kareem for quite a time and knows how funny and anal he is about such things. So she ordered a ultra-sound which lead to another mammogram by a fabulous radiologist. Well, to make an already long story shorter, the docs decided to do a biopsy. Of course, Dr. Kareem decided to go ahead and remove the nodes then biopsy them. Sooooo.....

Today they removed 5 nodes, that were larger and shaped funnier than they thought. We will know whether they are cancerous or benign by next Thursday. Other than that everything else tells the docs that they should not be cancerous. The surgery was a breeze and everyone including the doctors were so compassionate and caring that I was actually okay with it all. I give much praise for the empathy of everyone and for the smoothness of the whole procedure. I am sore but NOT laid up. (Got that "grapefruit- growing- under- my -armpit feeling" again).

I am asking for prayers for benign and harmless nodes and for a good week of lots of fun activities. I have much to be thankful for but if it is cancer then the transplant is off until it is cleared. So there is a lot at stake here. Please, there can not be too much prayer as we are always in prayer. God is so wonderful and awesome, yet His purpose is often impossible to grasp.

We are pretty much ready for Kim. I just hope she is patient with all of this medical garbage and doesn't mind being dragged to the hospital. We still have plenty of places to visit and a full agenda for her, so it should not be all doctor stuff.

I will keep everyone informed and you will know as soon as we find out.

Much love to all,
concerned in Pitts,
steve & steph