Surgery

Kristi entered the operating room about 11:00 this morning, eastern time. Her surgeon finished the main part of the surgery and gave me a report soon after 1:00, while the rest of the medical team was finishing things up.

Everything went well, and there were no surprises. The doctor still thinks it was a neuro endocrine tumor. There were no signs to make him think otherwise, and there were no signs of it beginning to spread to other areas. The pathologists will analyze it for further confirmation.

Kristi lost some blood during surgery, but not enough to require a transfusion.

We can once again praise the Lord for guiding during the process of finding the tumor and leading us to a medical team that has been able to deal with it effectively.

Continue to pray for Kristi as she recovers. We have tentative plans to return to Kansas on September 10. That date will change if we find that she needs more recovery time before making the trip.

Diagnosis

We had a long day at the doctor's office yesterday but the outcome was good news. Kristi has a rare kind of tumor called a Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor. In this case, rare is good because it's much more treatable. This kind of tumor is also potentially malignant and can be life threatening, but the likelihood is significantly less. At this point it simply needs to be taken out. Steve Jobs was a well-known person who had the same illness. Unfortunately he didn't deal with it correctly and it eventually caused his death.

Kristi's tumor is in the center of her pancreas and very close to the blood vessels that supply her spleen. For this reason the doctor will need to remove her spleen along with half of her pancreas (distal pancreatectomy). He will also remove her gall bladder at the same time--the organ that was the initial cause of our concerns.

Surgery is scheduled for Thursday, probably sometime around noon. We will stay in New York until then. Kristi will likely be hospitalized for about 5 days and then we'll wait a few more days to have her staples removed. All together, we are looking at a stay of maybe about 2 to 3 weeks for this visit.

The doctor believes there is about a 50% chance that Kristi will be diabetic as a result of the surgery. This is due to the fact that a healthy pancreas is so important for maintaining sugar levels.

Praise the Lord with us for the positive news we have received! We are so thankful for your prayer support during the past few days. Please continue to pray for the details of surgery and the challenges that come with it.

We appreciate you,
Scott and Kristi

New York

Kristi has an appointment tomorrow at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York. We are very grateful to the Lord for all the details which led to the provision of this opportunity. Pancreatic tumors are not an easy thing to deal with, but Kristi will be seen by a medical professional who is once of the most experienced in the nation.

Today we are traveling to New York. We expect to have several medical tests and we aren't sure how many days we'll need to stay.

Yesterday Lindsey started ninth grade in the same school where she attended last year. We are grateful for friends who have opened their home to care for her.

Pray for travels, for Lindsey, and for wisdom regarding medical options.

Update

We are currently waiting at our gate in the Quito airport to travel back to the States. We're pursuing options for medical care in a handful of hospitals that specialize in pancreas surgery. After we find the right hospital we will have a better understanding of where we will be located. For now we know that Lindsey will attend school in Kansas where she was last year. Kristi is feeling pretty well, and ready to handle the trip. Thank you for your outpouring of prayers and kind words.

Update

Kristi wasn't able to have gall bladder surgery today because of challenges with her blood pressure. After considering our options and seeking counsel we've decided to seek treatment for the tumor in her pancreas in the United States. We'll be traveling back to Kansas by the end of the week. The doctors have stabilized the situation enough with the gall bladder so that it looks like she will be able to just wait to do that there as well.

Thank you for your prayers.

Update

This morning Kristi had some blood work that showed some elevated levels. This is due to the gall stones and the procedure to remove them yesterday. Because of this and because of her blood pressure being a little high they have postponed her surgery until tomorrow.

We are thankful for the understanding that Alliance Academy is showing. It's soon time for Kristi to begin preparations for the school year but they have assured her that there is no pressure and they will cover her responsibilities for as long as needed.

Thank you to each one of you who are praying for these needs.

Tumor

Here's a quick update to let you know how you can pray. We traveled back to Ecuador on July 28. Since then we have been working a lot to move in to our new apartment. Most of our boxes have finally been unpacked.

On Friday morning Kristi woke up early with pain in her abdomen. We took her to the hospital and found that she needs to have her gall bladder removed. We expect the surgery to happen tomorrow afternoon.

Also, while examining her gall bladder a sonogram technician "accidentally" found a tumor in Kristi's pancreas. This is a potentially serious issue since there is a possibility of it being cancerous. The positive side is that the tumor has been found fairly early. We believe that God providentially guided the medical technician to find the tumor in a place where he wasn't even looking. There are a lot of unanswered questions that remain to be explored in the coming days. Please pray that God's providence would continue to be evident in the care that Kristi is receiving.