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Whew!

Sunday, January 16, 2005 1:37 AM CST

*SEE NEW PHOTOS ON PHOTO PAGE*

Whew! What a day!

We left Friday morning around 6 am and went to Seattle. Praise the Lord, the roads were clear. We spent about 5 hours at the hospital, and met with Dr. Silbergeld and Dr. Rocklin. Dr. S is certain he can remove at least 90%f the tumor.

The tumor is in a less tricky spot this time, as far as critical brain structures, so that's good. It is very near some major blood vessels which is a big concern. Bleeding in the brain is a real problem, your brain is about the consistency of custard, so there's no way to stitch that, in case of bleeding. Dr. S said that given the situation, the surgery is about as risky as it was last time.

We met the Haroldsons at Spaghetti Factory for a lovely dinner. Took a little detour getting back to the freeway. As a leader, Erik...fabulous, as a follower, me...not so much.

We heard from Dr. S's nurse, Cynthia, and she said that Dave's platelets were low from the chemo, so he needed a platelet infusion right away and to go to the ER when we got back to Walla Walla. We did. They, of course, knew nothing of what we were talking about. Finally woke up 3 different doctors, but it took Jim Butler, nurse extraordinaire, to get the ball rolling. Unfortunately, they had to order platelets from Portland. Soooooo....we went home at 2 am, got a little sleep, put Kenny on the ski bus at 6:30, and later went to the hospital to have the platelet infusion. They will check his platelets again before surgery and probably give him more just to be safe.

The surgery is scheduled for Tuesday the 18th. He goes for an MRI at 10 and then goes into surgery around 11am. Please pray for him and the surgeons at that time. He will be at the UW Medical Center, and will probably be there until Friday. They will do an MRI on Wednesday to determine whether they can do gamma knife again or not, and that will be done before he leaves the hospital.

Today, we celebrated Kate's 9th birthday. We took a bunch of little girls ice skating. What a wild ride. They had a lot of fun.

There will be a healing service for Dave at the College Place Presbyterian Church tomorrow, Sunday, at 7 pm. We'd love to see you if you can make it. It's a time for prayer, worship, anointing with oil and laying on of hands.

Thanks to everyone who's helping out....grandparents with the kids, Wendye the ever-faithful, Karen with the travel snacks, Mindy with the care package and everyone with meals. We are so grateful.

Now pray for this darn snow to stop so we can get back to Seattle!! :-)

Love you all, m

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