Here in Hospital Room 450

Patient TenHaaf was talking when we arrived, to no one’s surprise. He has not been up out of bed yet as the pain management seems less than optimal this time and he does not like to push the morphine button enough. Due to their having to take out much of the abdominal wall, as expected, he may have more pain, as the pain meds wear off, than in the second surgery. Please pray especially for this today. The surgery took about 12.5 hours this time. We told Dr. Bartlett he looked exhausted, and his reply was that it was a long day but a good day, he felt.

Results were much better than we were prepared to hear. They were able to save enough small intestine for good digestion, Praise The Lord. The rest was pretty covered with the tumor and doc said it was no wonder he couldn’t eat. William’s first words last night were “ileostomy?” He was so happy when we said no.They required no blood transfusion, put in 9 liters of fluid. There was very little cancer on the bladder and in other areas they had previously cleaned extensively.

The surgeon said that they “got it all,” meaning all of the non-microscopic cancer growths. Because of this, as long as they got enough cancer cells for the study, which is likely, he will be eligible for the Immunotherapy study. Please continue to pray that he would be able to get in the study, as dad said today that seems to be the best option for many more years serving the Lord.

James and Karen for Jenn, Rachel, and the Haitian Donkey