Dr. Appointment and Surgery

(This picture is when we were still in our local hospital...obviously before we found out our bad news. Just wanted everyone to see Alan' great smile.)

We got back from Alan's Dr. appt. around 9:00 last night. Our new word is "optimistic." Dr. Mooney said he was very optimistic about Alan's condition. He did officially call his cancer "Kidney Cancer." He said that he will take the kidney, tumor, possibly the spleen (depending on if it has grown up in it), and maybe some of the pancreas. It has defiantly spread, but apparently it is a slow spreading cancer. He said that this type of cancer is one of the hardest to find b/c there are no symptoms until it is so advanced. Dr. Mooney will also have a general surgeon with him during the surgery if they do end up taking the spleen or other organs. I asked him what the likelihood is of it coming back to the other kidney and he said there is about a 3% chance, so that was reassuring. Alan will have scans about every 6 months for the next 5 years just for precaution. I think everyone should be allowed a scan once a year. Dr. Mooney said Alan could have possibly had this tumor for 5 years and it has just been slowly growing. After surgery and we see exactly what we are up against, then we will get with the oncologist and talk about therapy. They have so many different medicines these days, so we will see what is best for Alan's situation.

Surgery
Since I have been working on this post, they called about Alan's surgery. It is going to be Monday the 8th at 10am at Baptist Health Center in Little Rock http://www.baptist-health.org/. The surgery will be anywhere from 2-3 hours and then Alan will be in the hospital for probably 3 days. We are extremely excited that they are able to get us in so soon, but of course nervous. Now we have to prepare and get ready for upcoming results that will hopefully be in our favor. We will be staying in Little Rock Sunday night. We have to be at the hospital at 8 that morning. We were all doing pretty well until we found out the date and time of the surgery and now the nerves have set back in. I know everyone is, but keep on praying. Man, do we need those prayers!! We are not in the clear yet, but hopefully will be soon. I'm waiting for the moment the Dr. comes out and says everything looks great! Those are the words we need to hear. Poor Sydney and Carson, they are just being tossed around.

Thank you again to everyone! The support is awesome and we love you.