Review

We have so much to be thankful for. We have seen God working and providing and caring over and over these past 6 weeks. Let me share just some of the ways we have seen God working.

I had a gall bladder attack even though I had never had any problems before. Because of this, the doctors made a very important discovery of a tumor on my pancreas.

My Ecuadorian doctor told us honestly that if we had the option of returning to the States for treatment that would be best since they don’t do very many pancreatic surgeries in Ecuador.

We were able to get airline tickets and get things ready to leave within 3 days. One of our churches paid for our airline tickets.

There were so many friends in Quito who provided meals, let Lindsey hang out with them while I was in the hospital, helped us get the house cleaned up, etc.

Five days after arriving back in Kansas, Lindsey started school again at Berean where she was last year. There were many friends and teachers to welcome her back who she knew from before.

During the 3 days we were preparing to leave Ecuador, my sister was researching pancreatic doctors in the States. She found the 3 hospitals ranked highest in this field and started the process of finding me an appointment at one of them. She spent hours on the phone. God once again provided, and I was given an appointment with the chief of surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Another church provided our airline tickets to New York.

2 weeks after finding the tumor, I saw the doctor in New York City. After looking at my images, he recognized it as a benign tumor. He told me it was the best kind of tumor to have on the pancreas.

We were able to schedule surgery within the week. All went as planned and I was released after 4 nights.

After losing half of my pancreas I could have developed diabetes, but I didn’t.

I have heard of others who have really struggled after this surgery, but God has protected me and allowed healing.

God has provided for most of our additional costs through our churches and supporters.

So now what? Avant has given us permission to remain in Kansas till December. This allows Lindsey to finish 1st semester. We are praying this will make her transition back to Ecuador a little bit easier. It is looking like I will be back in the classroom starting after Christmas. Going back in the middle of the year to a new grade level sounds like a huge challenge to me. So please pray for this transition.

Thank you so much for walking this journey with us!

Back to Kansas

Kristi had her follow-up appointment with the doctor yesterday afternoon, giving increased clarity and closure regarding her recent surgery. The pathology report resulted in the best possible news, her tumor was indeed benign and it was low grade--meaning it grew slowly and is less likely to spread. There is a small chance it could resurface during the next 5 years (less than 10%.) If it does it would probably be in her liver or lymph nodes, but even then it would be expected to be the same rare, benign form of pancreatic tumor. This is great news; we are thankful to God for answering our prayers in this way and thankful to you for joining us with your petitions to him.

Kristi will need to do periodic scans in the coming months and years. Her doctor in New York is willing to review images from a distance if we do them in other parts of the US or even in Ecuador. We are very grateful for the excellent doctor God gave to us. He has shown himself to be professionally excellent and also extremely focused on serving us in this and many other ways.

Kristi did not develop diabetes as a result of the surgery and does not have a significant increase in her likelihood of developing it for the future.

She has been seeing progress in her recovery from surgery and felt ready to travel. We changed our tickets to today and we're currently on our way back to Kansas as I write. She definitely needs more recovery before traveling internationally and considering stepping into her classroom ministry. Now that Lindsey has started the school year here we need to consider several factors and make a decision about the best timing for our return to the field. Pray for wisdom as we work on this during the next week.

Thank you for walking this journey with us!

Scott

Recovery

Thank you all for your prayers and your kind words of encouragement. Kristi has been slowly recovering from her surgery. She is still quite sore at her surgery site, her body is adjusting to some new realities, and she needs to gain more strength. Yesterday afternoon she was discharged from the hospital. She has been making significant progress in her recovery. She still moves very slowly and gingerly, but the pain is manageable.

Her blood sugar levels have been a little elevated but not alarmingly high. The medical team has been watching it, but so far diabetes doesn't seem to be a big concern.

We will have a follow-up appointment soon, hopefully on Friday. We're looking forward to the chance to learn the answers to a few more of our questions then.

Our plan is to return to Kansas soon after our appointment, depending on whether Kristi is ready to make the trip.

For now we are comfortably settled into a hotel in Manhattan. We are learning a lot about life in New York City--some parts of it are pretty cool, some things are very "interesting," and there are a few things we're not so convinced about.

We appreciate you!

Scott and Kristi

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.