June 5, 2009

At the end of April, we received word that my dad was diagnosed with kidney cancer on both kidneys. Some kidney pain on Friday and Saturday, and some blood in the urine those days alerted him enough to go to the ER on Sat. night. After numerous CAT scans and blood work the following week, cancer was the prognosis, and they expected to take out one kidney completely and half of the other one. It took a long while, which seemed like forever, to get in with the drs. at U of M and getting any type of dates for surgery. However, on June 5, my dad went to U of M to meet with the surgeon and anesthesiologist(spelling?). They told him he was the healthiest sick patient they have seen. Yeah God! He will be part of a clinical trial in the next few weeks; getting a shot some time this week, staying overnight and then getting some tests. Will it help? Maybe not him, but for future cancer patients, yes. And...it will get him a few extra "free" CAT scans for the drs. to look at before surgery. They now hope to save part of both kidneys, and both surgeries will be at U of M. Surgery #1 will be on the worser of the 2 kidneys, with it being on June 23, scheduled now for 10 a.m. We pray for God's continual healing power.