Update on Chris

I just received an email from Chris' dad. I will post some of it here so you will know exactly what to pray for! Again, I ask you to please pray and thank you in advance for your prayers! This is some serious stuff!

Howard (my step-grandfather) who we just got to visit with a couple weeks ago, passed away this morning. Erika is here and the two of us are headed to IL in the morning. Please pray for travel mercies for us. The girls will stay here with daddy, pray for him too! :) I'm pretty certain we got the house. The woman we are buying it from is 94 and has family in town and doesn't want to look at the contract until her guests leave next Tuesday... OK??? Anyway, I'll fill you in soon... it is so not important to me right now... this is...

We just returned home from the hospital after a long day. Chris showed up early for a chest CT and a new CT of his head and neck. Answered prayer for today was grace and strength in the face of less than the best news.

Our doctor told us that today’s x-rays eliminated any hope of saving the left mandible. He will lose a good portion beginning at the angle of the jaw and going forward three or four inches towards the chin. Some good news is that the surgical team has come together to permit scheduling for next Friday, the 24th. Dr. Weber said his part will take approximately four hours and the facial reconstruction part approximately eight hours. He predicted a hospitalization of seven to ten days and the need for a tracheotomy, which could be removed at about the time of his hospital discharge. He also thinks having a gastric feeding tube will be helpful to his recovery, as post-operative radiation will also be required, but not started, until he is mostly surgically healed. Chris has three or four challenging months ahead of him, as radiation also has its own list of frustrating annoyances.

Chris remains unbelievable to all of us. He retains his great wit and humor, which is so encouraging. He already has a repertoire of jokes about what it will be like to gum your food with your leg bone (the fibula will be transplanted to make the new portion of mandible).

I will not write again until after his surgery, but please don’t forget to crank up your prayers for next Friday. We remain grateful for your appeals to God and your many notes of encouragement.