Jason´s Mom - Vicky Hastings

Hello all...

As some of you know, my Mom is ill and having surgery this coming week for a brain tumor that was discovered in late August. We have been on a bit of a roller coaster over the last couple weeks as the doctors work to understand exactly what is going on in her body. Mom had breast cancer in 1998 and a recent blood test has shown that cancer has returned. The specific location and nature of the cancer wasn´t identified by further tests. Initially, it was thought that her brain tumor was cancer, but her latest visit to the neurosurgeon has us [relatively] convinced that the tumor is benign. We can´t be 100% sure until they do a biopsy. So... we´re encouraged that things in the brain are better than originally thought. As for the (new?) cancer, that will be explored further after she clears the hurdle of brain surgery this week.

We are in Austin, TX and will be here for the next 2 weeks.

The schedule is essentially this:

Monday, fun day. Going to a park here in Austin. :-)

Tuesday, admission to the hospital with a minor surgery. They will do a 4 hour procedure on Mom to block the blood flow of the tumor. It´s a pretty straightforward procedure, but does have some risks that it could cause a stroke or some other complications. It´s expected to go fine.

Wednesday, the big surgery. They will do the work from about 9am until (no kidding) midnight. It´s expected to be about a 12/15 hour surgery. It pains me to say that this is the most difficult surgery in the Neuro field. The location of the tumor is problematic and the risks on this surgery are v v high. I could give you the stats, but they are hard to read. It´s a tough one.

Thursday, ICU with Mom kept sedated all day (we think).

Friday, ICU expected... the recovery begins.

Sat/Sun/Mon, we´ll just see how it´s going.

How you can pray:
1) For Tuesday. For peace and confidence. For the details of the day to go smoothly. The coordination of all this by the hospital is complex and gaps seem to exist in their planning. This creates unneeded stress for Mom and us. It´d be so nice if things just went smoothly.

2) Wednesday is really a big day. For all things mentioned above... plus... wisdom for the surgeons doing the work. That they are able to remove most of the tumor without damaging other things. That we would be ok waiting during the surgery. We´ll get 3 or 4 updates throughout the day from the OR.

3) Well... there are lots of other details... but the things above are the most critical. I´m sure we´ll have more details as things unfold.

Thanks for praying for us and her. I hope to be able to make some additional updates as things unfold. I´m not thinking the hospital will have internet access... but we are staying in a hotel across the street and should be able to make updates at least nightly.

Hopeful,
Jason/Becca/Katie