Prayer Request Update

Well, my dad officially finished 6 weeks of radiation on May 18.  It was a fairly smooth process....just a long 6 weeks for him as he traveled to and from Chicago every morning for 8 minutes worth of radiation.  He was however very blessed to have different friends, co-workers, people from church drive him in every day.  He actually even started back to work 2 weeks ago.  Fast forward a few weeks to Wed of last week when he started to have some swelling on his head/eyes/face area.  Not a huge deal at first as this has happened before and resolved itself so the doctors were not concerned.  This time however, the next morning, my dad's speech also declined.  Later that night he also had a fever and with all those factors and the concern of infection he was taken Northwestern ER.  It was determined that he did have an infection and after an infectious disease consult and an MRI it was also determined that surgery would be necessary. So Friday night my dad had yet another surgery.  This time however part of his skull was removed as this was the source of the infection and itself was infected.  In 8-10 weeks he will have another surgery (once this infection is completely gone) to put a synthetic bone back in.  On Saturday I met up with Shelby in Chicago and we were able to spend the day with my dad/Jamie.  It worked out perfect as Corey's parents already had plans to go to Chicago for the day so I rode with them and we picked up Shelby from the bus station.  My dad is recovering well and the plan is that Corey will go pick him up tonight so he can come home.  He will just need to be careful what he does and has been fitted for a helmet to wear.  I think it was just surreal for us and him ....almost like we can't believe he has to go through this again.  In the midst of these trials we thank God for the blessings.  My dad's MRI showed that there was no new tumor growth and also the doc said that had my dad waited 2 more days to get the ER the infection could have already penetrated the brain and that would have been very bad.  Thankfully God is in control and He does answer our prayers and we have seen His hand of protection on my dad!!!!

(Please also keep my Uncle Neal--my dad's brother--in your prayers as he is back in the hospital.  See his blog called Trish's Health Update on the side bar)