Surgery details

The past few days have been busy with decision-making. Honest to goodness, there were more ideas tossed around than I could have ever imagined. We are all so grateful that so many ideas are being considered. Anyway, this what I know:

Surgery will take place tomorrow, Aug. 5 at 6 a.m. CDT. They've collectively decided they would like to keep the metal holding his spine together intact. The hydrotherapy (lavage) has been doing a good job with cleaning the decube and generating new growth. Doctors feel they can take a piece of Karl's buttock and skin and fill in the rest of the hole. They also feel they can kill any bacterial growth that may take place on the metal with antibiotics. They'll assess the situation over the next few weeks, and if necessary, they'll take out the metal. Obviously they don't feel that will be the case, otherwise they'd remove it tomorrow, but they want the surgery to be as minimal and least invasive as possible. Karl said they were also going to patch up his right heel, but lavage has also made marked improvements on his heels. The surgery shouldn't last long, but they couldn't give us a time-frame.

In terms of the cancer, Dr. Yaszemski feels it can be killed using radiation. They've talked about cryoabrasion, cyberknife and a regular surgical resection. The radiation is apparently the least invasive and Dr. Y feels that it will be easier for Karl to tolerate than the other options. They will do that in about 3 weeks after his skin flaps have healed better.

I just talked to Karl moments ago to see how he was doing. He said he's very confident and relieved that it's finally going to get repaired. He said Dr. Y was also very confident. He told Karl he's first on the docket and he'd take good care of him.

We are so thankful that God lead us back to Mayo. We hope you'll say an extra prayer for Karl and the doctors and I promise to post something as soon as I get any information.

Love and blessings,

Kerry