Surgery

The surgery was on Thursday, Feb 16, 2006 at Zale Lipshy hospital in Dallas. One of my seminary professors came early in the morning and prayed with us. In the pre-op room we had about 10 people in that room. We visited and prayed together. They all stayed until Stacie was taken out for surgery.

Downstairs we had ALOT of family, friends, and co-workers. Many of them stayed the entire day. It was early evening when Dr. Mickey and his PA came downstairs. Everyone gathered around waiting for the news. Dr. Mickey announced that they got it all. The room erupted with joy, elation, praises to God. There was alot of hugging and crying. I hugged Dr. Mickey. His PA extended his hand and was a little taken aback when I hugged him also.

Stacie was in recovery and about two hours later I got to go see her. She was awake, and talking. Evidently the nurses came in every hour to make sure their patients were coherent. They'd ask if the patient knew what year it was, who the president is, where they were, etc. Stacie was irritated because she was trying to sleep. So, at one point she started stopping them at the door, announcing what they wanted to know and they'd leave. She could hear someone else who was not so coherent, thinking they were at home, and Nixon was in office.

Preparation

The night before the surgery a small group of people came over to pray with us. 7 adults and their kids. One of the guys brought a guitar and we sang some worship songs, discussed our commitment, and prayed together. Our kids all huddled in Bai's room and read scripture and prayed together also.

Another Tragedy

The week we met Dr. mickey my uncle passed away from lung cancer. This was very hard for everyone. My uncle Marc always had a smile on. He loved sports and could tell you all kinds of facts about football and the Cowboys.

When I think of Uncle Marc I always remember asking him to race me when I was a little boy. He had these new sneakers on and said he couldn't run in them. I asked why and he said because it would set the grass on fire and he'd already gotten in trouble for that once. I was so gullible. I said we could race on the street then. However, his answer was that it would also burn up the road. Well...I couldn't ask him to do something that would get him in trouble. I must have told everybody how my uncle actually had shoes that would burn up the road.

What is it?

Our doctor had scheduled us an appointment that week with a neuro surgeon. The first neuro surgeon referred us to another. Just two weeks later we met Dr. Bruce Mickey a neuro surgeon at UT Southwestern in Dallas, TX.

He told us that this tumor was on the outer layer of her brain and was causing some swelling and other symptoms. He said it was slow growing and they really couldn't say how long it had been there but probably at least 3 years.

Dr. Mickey said this needed to be removed. After her recovery he would put us in touch with an oncologist who had just moved down here from Boston.