NTM

It has been 5 days since Troy’s surgery. He has had some bad nights with a lot of pain. He looks good and is starting to eat a little better.

Our biggest prayer request is for his memory and speech. The doctor said it could take a couple of weeks or longer for that to normalize.

We are still here in Wichita with them but will probably be heading home before too long.

We appreciate the prayers of God’s people so much. They have definitely helped us through this week.

Yes, you heard right! The doctors had previously said that Troy would probably be in the ICU for 2-3 days and in the hospital for 6-10 days.

Troy came out of surgery at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday. About 28 hours later they moved him out of ICU. This afternoon, 48 hours after the surgery, the surgeon came in and asked if Troy wanted to go home. We couldn’t believe it!. Troy is sleeping in his own bed as I write this.

We saw where they opened his head. The cut was about nine inches long and shaped like a horseshoe from above his sideburn up around his ear and down the back of his head. They cut an oval piece out of his skull around 2-3 inches long. When they removed the angioma, they put the piece back in place with titanium "buttons" and tiny screws to hold the piece in place.

Because of swelling in the brain, Troy’s memory and speech is a little slow but they warned us of this before the surgery. Hopefully, in a couple of days it will be much better. He gets the staples out in about a week. 

We know many people were praying and feel that this is definitely God’s answer. Thank you Lord!

Troy had his surgery yesterday. We arrived at the hospital at 6:00 am and left at about 8:30 pm.

The surgeon talked to us after the surgery and assured us that everything went very well. We also talked with the Neurologist and he said the same.

Last night Troy was not talking but did talk some this morning. He was having some pain and nausea. His memory seems to be okay. The doctors told us that his speech and memory may be worse in the next few days as the brain continues to swell after the surgery.

Many people have been praying for us and we can definitely feel the encouragement and comfort from all that support.

It looks like Troy may be in the ICU another day or two and in the hospital a week.

Thanks so much again for upholding all of us in your prayers.

"We can hug our hurts and make a shrine out of our sorrows or we can offer them to God as a sacrifice of praise. The choice is ours." R. Exley

One week from today, on Wednesday the sixth of December, Troy goes into the hospital. At 6:15 a.m. he will have a Stealth MRI to pinpoint the exact location of the angioma in his brain. At 8:30 a.m. he is scheduled for surgery.

He was told the surgery might last 4-5 hours. He could be in the ICU for 2 or 3 days and up to 6-10 days in the hospital.

We head out to Wichita on Tuesday to be with Troy and his family.

Thanks for your prayers!

I once served a church in an affluent southern California city. During one Wednesday morning men’s breakfast, I mentioned that I would be preaching that evening at the community-wide Thanksgiving service. One of the men said, "You’ll have to preach a really good sermon to make my Thanksgiving worthwhile. I don’t have anything to be thankful for." I knew this man well. I knew there were some things in his life that weren’t working out. I also knew he had some blessings that he wasn’t acknowledging.

There was another man sitting at our table that morning. He was dying of cancer; it was his last Thanksgiving. He said to the group, "Do you want to hear my thanksgiving sermon?" We all said, "Sure, go ahead." This was his sermon: he said, "Thank you, God, for everything."

That’s the way I want to live. That’s the attitude that opens the door to God’s blessing in your life. Every good thing in your life is a gift from him. Every pleasant place is a gift from him. Every hope that you have for the future is a gift from him.

A thankful heart gives meaning to the past, present and future of our lives. It opens our eyes to the gifts he has given us, and it opens the door to his continued blessing in our lives.

Troy, our thirty-one year old son, will be having brain surgery on December 6th.

Just over a year ago he had a seizure. The doctors discovered it was caused by an angioma on the left side of his brain. Troy went through an intense series of tests over several months to see if he was a candidate for surgery.

The first week of October, after the final test, five doctors met to discuss his case. They decided that the benefits of surgery outweigh the risks.

Please pray! Thank you so much!

1 Peter 5:7 "Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."

Emilie, wife of 19th-century German pastor Christoph Blumhardt, envied his ability to pray for his parishioners and then effortlessly fall asleep. So one night she pleaded, "Tell me your secret!" He answered, "Is God so powerless that my worrying would help the well-being of our parish?" Then he added, "There comes a moment each day when we must simply drop what weighs on us and hand it over to God." Vernon Grounds – ODB