Mike is Stabilized

It has been a difficult day with great disappointment. Surgery was halted 2 1/2 hours into the procedure, without accomplishing the goals we were hoping to walk away with. We don't know exactly where this leaves us, so we would appreciate your continued prayers, to keep walking down this painful road, until God shows us His complete will for our lives.

On a grateful side, Mike has stabilized after enduring full abdominal surgery, after such a cardiac scare. He gained an additional drain today, but it will be taken out before we leave Houston. His pain is being managed by an Epidural and other pain medications, but the amazing thing is that he is very coherent and doing as good as can be expected. There are some other factors going on, in addition to what I'm sharing this evening, but I would rather get all the facts straight, before sharing further. I'm praying we'll have better understanding tomorrow.

Please forgive me for defaulting to an email my sister sent out to her friends concerning what occurred. I want you to have details, but I'm so exhausted and am struggling to think straight. I promise to update you tomorrow when my head is clearer. I just want you all to know how grateful I am for thinking about us and praying as you have been. It has kept me going today.

Love, Beverly

From Jaime:
"The surgeon came out to speak with us at 10 am. They had to stop the surgery because Mike's heart could not sustain an 8 hour surgery. His blood pressure dropped significantly once he was put under and they had to give him medicine to keep it up; however, this medicine is damaging to his intestines and could not be administered for the entire procedure. The surgeon had to remove a section of Mike's colon to reach the tumor in his liver. This had to be done because of so much scar tissue from the 2 prior cancer surgeries 28 years ago. Additionally, the surgeon discovered once they were in there that Mike had extensive damage to his liver, intestines and heart from the radiation treatments 28 years ago. This damage along with the scar tissue led to the surgery needing to be much more complicated and lengthy - and Mike would not have made it. The surgeon said it was not "humanly possible" to go forward with the surgery at this time. Mike will have to be in the hospital at least 5 days. There are no alternatives being offered at this time while he recovers. Mike and Bev are both very sad and disappointed with this outcome. Hopefully Mike will recover and we will be able to come up with an alternate solution."