Here we go again?

Well, I promise not to do this very often. However, for those of you who have kept track of us through this blog, I want to give you an update.

We truly don't know how long this has been happening and don't know what the outcome will be at this time, hence the question mark at the end of the title of this post. Myrna's father has been having diarrhea for a few days at least. We're not sure how long the diarrhea has been going on, but, last Friday, Myrna noticed a considerable amount of blood in his stool. She called dad's family physician who highly recommended we take him directly to the emergency room. We did. After several hours of tests and waiting, they discovered a mass in his colon. They immediately admitted him to the hospital. Incidentally, he was admitted to the same floor that Mom was on, actually could see her room directly across from dad's. Kinda weird. (I mentioned to Myrna that maybe it was time we came to terms with mom's death in that hospital. Dunno, but it could be.)

Endoscopy was performed and a mass was determined to be right near the connection between the colon and the rectum. X-Ray determined the size to be about the size of a plum and surgery was scheduled to remove it. Options were not great. Leave it and he would die from not being able to have a bowel movement. Remove it, with his heart condition, take the chance that he wouldn't make it through surgery. Not good options, but the doc highly recommended the surgery with the hopes that the heart would take the trauma and that, perhaps in the future, his heart issues could be addressed. Without the surgery, no heart problems resolved and no chance to even consider anything else.

Surgery began at around 5:15pm on 6/29/2010. We met the doctor after surgery (around 7:20pm). The surgery entailed removing the tumor, all of the lymph nodes around it, and some of the wall of the abdomen because the tumor had started attaching to it. The doctor was quite happy that dad had survived the surgery fairly well. Blood pressure is a little elevated at this time, but dad seems to be stabilizing. Now, begins the waiting. Dad is in ICU at Lexington's St. Joe hospital. We're trusting God to pull him through. Several weeks of rehab will follow release from the hospital. So, this is a long process. We won't know the outcome of the biopsy and the lymph node examination for a few days.

Of course, the end is certainly in God's hands. We would appreciate your prayers that dad's heart handles this trauma, that he recovers well, and that we are able to live into this new phase. Thanks for your prayers. We know they will definitely help us.