Hello everyone......It's been a very long time since we posted a blog entry, but I think the occasion calls for letting everyone know what's been going on with our family.
It began about a month and a half ago when our Dad started feeling pain in his left front-side area. When he first went to the doctor they thought it was just a urinary tract infection, and gave Daddy antibiotics to take care of it. However, the medicine didn't help any, so he went back and had some more extensive tests done. Meanwhile he kept getting sicker and sicker, had energy loss, and got jaundice. (Yellowing of the eyes and skin.) The tests showed that there was something obstructive in the bile duct, but they couldn't tell whether it was a stone or a tumor. They scheduled Daddy to have a scope put inside of him so they could tell which it was. The day we got back from camp meeting (August 18th) was the day he had it done, and that's when we found out he has a tumor. The doctors concluded that it looked like bile duct cancer - you can Google it, I don't feel like explaining it all right now.
Anyway, on Fridya (August 23) they went back in via scope to see how far it's spread, and to tell for sure just exactly what it was (is).... Normally the tumor has spread by the time they find it, so it is too late. But thank the Lord when they went in it didn't look as if it had spread! They had to send away for the lab report, so the doctors still didn't know for sure if it was cancer, and wouldn't until they got the results back.
That brings me to yesterday when our parents went in to see the doctor to get the test results and to decide what to do next. That's when the doctor said it isn't bile duct cancer like they had thought, but rather pancreatic cancer, and he's 95% sure. And that's how things stand right now. The next step is to try to get him into Johns Hopkins Hosptial ASAP for a Whipple operation. (You can look that up too.) If you read about it you'll see they wont even know if it will work until they actually go in and see just where the cancer is and where it's spread (if it has). They can only complete is in 40-60 percent of the people they open up. It is a very extensive operation taking 10-12 hours, and a very long hospital stay.
Right now Daddy is in constant pain, has no appetite, and hardly any energy.
We desperately need your prayers, as we have a very long and hard journey ahead of us. Thank you to all who have called or written saying we are in your thoughts and prayers. We have a great group of friends.
But, God is with us, and God is good!
Elizabeth Anne
