January Update

For those of you who still check the blog, I know it has been since November since I updated. We had a great Thanksgiving and wonderful Christmas! A week or so before Thanksgiving Dad started having some pain in his neck right around the scar tissue from the original surgery. We decided to watch it and hope that it was scar tissue and/or muscle pain as the scar is right along the neck where he turns his head. After the holidays it was still there and seemed swollen and caused a lot of pain so he decided to call Dr. Holmes. We had an appointment on January 4 already scheduled so he said we could just wait until then and he would look at it. Upon first looking at it, he thought there was a great deal of scar tissue located on the nerve that leads down his neck and shoulder and that could be causing the pain. He also felt a small mass underneath and wanted to do a biopsy. While doing the biopsy he discovered there was a lot of infection in the area which could also have contributed to the swollen area and the pain. He prescribed him a muscle relaxer and an antibiotic while we waited for the biopsy results. One week later the biopsy came back and it wasn't the news we wanted to hear. It appears the cancer was trying to come back again. Thank God for the signs that something isn't right and we get to the doctor to check it out. It was not the news that we wanted to hear, but at least we now know and we can do something about it. Surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 19th at St. Vincents. The surgery will be at 11:00 and Dad will stay overnight for observation and pain management. Dad had a PET scan last week so Dr. Holmes would know exactly what he is going in to get. As of tonight (Monday) we have not received a report about the PET scan but hope that it was the small mass that we suspected and nothing else. Hopefully, Dr. Holmes will go over that with us in the morning. Please pray for good news there. Pray that the mass is small and easily removed. Pray for Dr. Holmes and the other doctors and nurses involved in tomorrow's surgery. Pray that the surgery go as planned and for complete healing. We pray that when Dr. Holmes comes out after surgery that he reports that the cancer was self contained and completely removed. We will also pray that Dad feels good really quickly after the procedure. I will post as soon after the surgery as possible. Thank you all!