the latest and greatest on the Trixster

No, no one calls her that.

Yes, I think we should probably start. Now.

Well, if you haven't heard via facebook/word of mouth . . . we're going to Louisville next week! We finally heard back from Dr. Martin's office - he said yes and come on! Praise God for His faithfulness!

Dr. M requires his patients to have a stress test before surgery, and Mom will have that done this Wednesday. If all goes as planned, Mom and I will leave for Louisville next Sunday. On Monday, she'll have a CT scan. On Tuesday, we'll meet with Dr. Martin, and, Lord willing, on Wednesday, April 24, Mom will finally have this nanoknife surgery we've been praying about!

Still have questions about what nanoknife is? It's also called irreversible electroporation, and this site explains the procedure well. Watch the animated video on that site; it's not too long and really informative. The only difference between Mom's procedure and the one described on that website is that, instead of being guided by CT scan or ultrasound, Mom's nanoknife actually be done during surgery.  

We've been told several different things about Mom's length of stay in the hospital . . . anywhere from 3 to 10 days. We're guessing she'll probably be there around 5 days. She has to remain in Louisville for at least 10 days. I will probably stay with Mom the whole time, while my dad and others will be making trips up to see us (okay, her) while we're there. it's just easier for me to take off work than Dad; plus it helps to have a parent home with Jamal and Tekia as much as possible and it helps to have a nurse with Trish as much as possible. Where we'll be staying is still up in the air. We'll most likely be at a hospital hospitality house, which we think is on a floor of a nearby hotel. The rates there are much cheaper than anywhere else.

Here are this week's prayer requests . . .

• stress test this Wednesday - Pray that it will show Mom's heart is in good shape and able to tolerate surgery (despite the many rounds of chemo it's endured).
• CT scan next Monday - I'd be lying if i said I weren't nervous about this. This is big. This will be happening 6 weeks after Mom's last chemo. If there's any sign of metastasis, there will be no surgery. Pray for another "no change" scan! Pray that there will be no signs of breast cancer anywhere in Mom's body and that her pancreatic cancer will be the same size or smaller!
• meeting Dr. Martin - it's a little unnerving to be going to a strange doctor in a strange place and trusting him with your mom's life after meeting him one time. Pray that our meeting with him on Tuesday will go well and that we will leave feeling confident in our decision to be there. Pray also that Dr. Tauer and Dr. Martin will be able to talk in the meantime. They've been playing phone tag and I, for one, would feel better If I knew that Dr. T trusted him. ;)
• surgery - Pray that it would be completely successful in removing every bit of cancer from Mom's body! Pray that she will not have any complications and will recover quickly. 
• our family - Mom spent two weeks in the hospital after her Whipple surgery two years ago, and that was hard on all of us, especially Jamal and Tekia. Two weeks with her and me in another state is going to be harder. My dad obviously wants to be with my mom as much as possible, but also needs to work and be here for the kids. There's talk of taking the kids to Louisville for part of the time. Tekia has achievement testing, along with the usual drama that most girls in middle school face. Jamal is usually home-schooled by Mom, and he has his own struggles. This is going to be hard. Just pray for us to make it through this in one piece.
• Pray for God's glory to be revealed in all of this . . . the fact that He's brought us this far, the way that He cares for Mom, the way that He cares for our family, the way we respond to all of this. There is huge potential for God-glorifying here, and we don't want to waste it.  

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful." -Hebrews 10:23