Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Change of Plans

There was a slight change of plans. Around 2:oopm today we met with the oncologist at Vista (Victory) in Waukegan. He strongly recommended that we consult a neurosurgical team at the University of Chicago Hospital. In sum, he doesn't think that radiation will effectively "shrink" the tumor unless more of it can be removed surgically.

At 6:15pm today Karl was transported to the University of Chicago. Tomorrow morning we will start meeting with the group of doctors and begin to formulate our plan of attack. Karl will undergo a slew of tests tomorrow and have several consultations throughout the day. The hope is that this team will be able to remove a significant amount of the tumor. The initial neurosurgeon's goal was to take a biopsy and remove as much of the tumor as possible. Because of the blood vessels that were growing into the tumor it was too dangerous to attempt to remove it. The U of C team will take a slightly different course with the surgery. The procedure in and of itself will be done slightly differently. We will know more about the specifics of the surgery after we meet with the doctors tomorrow.

Obviously we were a little surprised by the oncologists recommendation, particularly because we were being told for the few days that Karl would be home.

Please pray. Our God can move mountains.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks Keith for the continued updates. We are continuing to pray. I am still up for cooking that meal for Karl whenever you need it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. ditto what John said.

    thinking about you and continuing to pray for you karl...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Keith, we really appreciate the updates and we don't stop praying. We are thankful there are other hospitals with doctors who have more experience and knowledge so they can provide the best care for Karl. We love you all.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Keith,

    Thoughts are prayers are with Karl and your family from all of us at Zion-Benton. The updates are tremendous, thank you.

    J. Carlson

    ReplyDelete