Time to take another hill

Just got back from visiting Karl then grabbing a bite to eat.

Karl was completely asleep during this visit, which made us much more at ease. They had just taken him down for a CT scan and apparently it wore him out. That enabled us to question the RN at length. First, Karl is doing fine. His vital signs are all strong. He is getting a combination of fentanyl for pain and another drug that starts with a P (I'm so technical) that sort of paralyzes him and looks something like skim milk. (The RN called it God's milk). Anyway, the ventilator is still in place, but he's initiating breaths on his own. Since he's going for another big surgery tomorrow, they're going to leave it in place. We found out he took 10 units of blood during last night's surgery, which is quite a bit. Yet without the vascular surgeon's work, his blood loss would have been much more severe.

Another interesting bit of information is that Karl's RN, Lance, was an Army artillery guy who was injured while serving during non-combat exercises. He is a graduate of Wayne State but got his BSN from Akron. He also informed us that Dr. Yaszemski was recently promoted to brigadier general (one star) http://www.af.mil/bios/bio.asp?bioID=10829. And you'd never know it. He is the most humble guy and has a way of putting us at ease. Again, I have to glorify God for blessing us with Dr. Y's skills, along with all the other miraculous things that have occurred over the past few months. At some point, I'm going to give you a recap of those blessings.

Tomorrow will be another long day for us. We will begin the day in Karl's room at 6 a.m. (central) to let him know we're there and stay with him before he goes off to surgery. Then Randy and I will drive to Winona where he'll catch a return train to Ann Arbor. We aren't sure about the time of the surgery, but I'll keep you posted like I did on Wednesday.

Again I'd like to call on you to pray that all goes well, that God guides the hands of the surgeons and other medical technicians, that the tumor be removed with ease and in entirety, that Karl is strong enough to take the reconstructive surgery, that his pelvic bones are strong and can handle donor bone, that everything goes as smoothly as possible and that Karl comes through this with the best possible outcome. And please pray this in Jesus' name. According to John 14:13-14 Jesus said, "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

So my wonderful prayer warriors, I'm calling you to active duty again. Support Brigadier General Yaszemski and his staff along with Private Karl. They will be fighting to take the next hill.

Love and peace,

Kerry