Martin gets a surgery date

God's answer to prayer is not always a miracle. We might need to go through something to test our faith.

The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.

~Proverbs 16:9 NRSV

This morning, Martin and Tess and I dropped the boys with my sister and we headed out to M.D. Anderson for an appointment with the original surgeon who removed his cancer almost 2 years ago now. While the boys studied the country of India, made mosaic garden stones, played carnival outside and had a wonderful gluten-free lunch with their auntie and cousins, we carefully thought about our questions and anticipated a lot of things in this meeting.

The doc could not open Martin's mouth to see inside or even use a scope to really see anything. His mouth has been totally shut now for a week and a half. He drinks most meals, has lost about 5 pounds but is keeping it clean inside for now. The doc mainly used the CT scan and showed it to us on the computer and we walked through the scan and talked it over. You can see the bone deterioration due to radiation and he showed us what he wanted to remove. This osteoradionecrosis or, ORN is a typical possible side effect of radiation therapy. The "joke" about radiation is: "Radiation: The gift that keeps on giving." The area to remove is from the middle of his chin back up to the socket where the jawbone joins to the head. It will be major surgery taking as long to do, as long to heal and as complicated as his first to remove the cancer.

The good news.

There is plenty of good news. Relative to the really bad suffering, there is good news. The doc and I almost said simultaneously, "this is really bad". Moving onto the things to focus upon for now. The fact that the socket looks good means that maybe a new hinge of sorts can be made using a new metal jaw bone to attach to it. The doc also said that because two years have passed, it is likely that the soft tissue in the scan is scar tissue and not tumor. In his 25+ years, he thinks that a recurrence of cancer would happen in the first two years...that is good. Of course, he has also learned never to say never and won't know for sure until surgery if there is a tumor(s). That is reasonable to me. I did ask him if he has this surgery, and say in the future, more tumors present in his head, would it make more sense to do radiation before surgery since the radiation ruined his new surgically placed tissue so severely? He said that it is highly unlikely that "he could do any more radiation". Good. Martin reacts severely to radiation and we have been told by the radiation oncologist that some people look like they have a light pink tint to their skin or nothing at all following radiation therapy and then there are those like Martin who look like he sustained a nuclear blast (well almost) on the outside not to mention the damage to his bone and tissue inside.

We meet the plastic surgeon next week I think and then talk about reconstructing the jaw. We will get all the details of how it will happen. The date set is November 30th. Martin and I will be in hospital for one week give or take. He will have a trachea tube and be tube fed for up to two weeks. My parents are already planning to take on the children.

• If you want to help. Pray. Pray for good decisions by the surgeons and for Martin's mind and body to tolerate the whole thing. Pray for a good acceptance by his body of the new tissue and to resist infection.
• Please make a meal for my parents to share with our children. That would mean so much to us.
• And, perhaps, some company for me while I sit and wait while Martin is in surgery...it will take hours and my sister will be supporting my parents likely so may not be able to be with me the whole long day.

One more thing to add to that prayer list...last night while repairing torn out wires from our two playful new kittens, in standing up from behind the television set, Martin hit his broken jaw on the t.v....ouch!! He had a sleepless night and today the dishwasher will not run due to the fact that the disposal is broken...he will have to work on it when he gets home and then..I am making him nap!

Even with all this, life goes on...Halloween, birthdays for our fall/winter born children, Thanksgiving the week before surgery, then Christmas. So much crafting, baking and playing in the cool fall air are ahead. Oh, and a huge surgery. "We are taking it in stride" as Martin would say. We have so much to be thankful for and see those things so much more clearly than ever before cancer. We thank the Lord for this test. We really do.