Sep
21
2007
How does one write about such things when those reading cannot see the feelings that are being conveyed. Next to impossible, so I am going to say from the beginning that Jonathan and I are confident in the outcome of these surgery procedures. We are confident that our God is an awesome God and NOTHING is to difficult for Him. We know that He is Sovereign and loves us with an everlasting love. When I start reminding myself of some of His atributes I get so excited that I have a hard time stopping! Just suffice it to say, that this is but one more step on our journey that began this Spring.
On October 17th we will be heading to Kansas University Hospital for all three procedures. We met the Urologist that will be performing the surgery on his stomach and testicle on Monday of this week. On Thursday we met the Ear, Nose, Throat surgeon that will be performing the operation on his neck. He will have the longest recovery from the stomach incision (big surprise) but the most touchy surgery will be on his neck. Our biggest prayer is that the tumors left over from the treatment is only scar tissue and that the doctors will be able to remove all remaining tissue. The Urologist is confident that he will be able to get all involved lymph nodes removed without any trouble. The ENT is hoping and praying that the tissue is only scar tissue so that if he has to leave any of it there will be no further treatment needed. Dr Neubauer (our oncologist) and Dr Holzheierlein (the surgeon who specilizes in treating testicular cancer) are pretty confident that the tissue is only scar tissue becuase of how low his blood tumor markers were at the last reading. The ENT is not a specialist in treating testicular cancer as the other two doctors are and will operate with the care needed to make sure he does not damage any of the nerves in Jonathan's neck. The tumor in his neck is "attached" to the main muscle on the neck and from the looks on the CT scan is putting pressure on the voice box nerve, the nerve that controls the diaphragm on the left side, and the carotid artery. The doctor will do his best to remove all the residual tumor but will be very careful to not damage any nerves. That is why we pray there are no left over cancer cells in his body.
On a more humerous note both appointments at KU ended up taking from 2pm to 5pm. We actually waited in the waiting room on the first appoinment almost 2 hours before seeing the doctor. On the second appointment we waited 1 1/2 hours before seeing the doctor. We wanted to ask the surgeon if we would be waiting 4 hours before they will be able to begin surgery? I can tell you that those waiting rooms get REAL boring after about 20 minuts and the offices at KU don't have any reading material to entertain you after you first look at all the instruments. I guess we will just have to wait and see.