Double Digits brings Praise

Friends-

Hope has been granted!  We heard good news from the doctors today. 

First:  Dad has had a total of four units of blood in the past 24 hours and his blood levels have risen to double digits!  They haven't been this high almost all month...even when he last left the hospital.  Great news and a huge praise!  It shocked us all and you could see happiness written all over our faces.

Second:  The results of the CT Scan showed that there are no additional tumors in the lower intestine that could also be the cause of bleeding.  Great News, because we've been given the green light to pursue a procedure conducted by radiology.

Third:  As of now, dad is a candidate for a specific procedure where doctors will go into his arteries, hopefully find the artery that is causing the bleeding in the tumor and cut off the blood supply to the tumor we believe is bleeding.  This would stop blood flow through the tumor and actually could help shrink the size of the tumor and allow food to pass more easily.  Great News again! 

Now, there are some risks involved which in every procedure there could be risks...so below are specific prayer requests:

• Praise to our Heavenly Father for this news and for potentially allowing us more time with dad.
• Medication will be given to help protect dad's only existing kidney as the process for preparing dad for this procedure could cause harm to that kidney.  Prayers for protection over that one kidney.
• Pray for the bleeding source to be easily found and accessible
• Pray that the artery supplying blood to the tumor is not supplying blood to anything else major...we don't want to cut off blood supply to other important parts of the body.
• Pray that dad's blood levels continue to rise.

It's very possible that dad will be in the hospital through the weekend and we look forward to hopefully bringing him home soon again!