How's Jerry Doing?

This post is mainly a recap of the events that have happened over the past few weeks. I still have things in September and October to write about but that can wait until the next post. Many of you know that my father-in-law, Jerry, has had a recent bout with his health. Here are some more details to help you understand what has happened and where we go from here. BEWARE, this is a little bit lengthy...

From about the third week in September, Jerry was here in Oklahoma staying with Grandma Betty to help her out while she recovered from gall bladder surgery (the health issue I referred to in my last post). All was going well except that on Tuesday, the 25^th, he started to have some chest pains earlier in the morning that persisted on and off throughout the day. Finally that night, around 9pm, he called me up and asked me to take him to the ER to get checked out. At the ER, they were able to get his heart stabilized and make sure his blood sugar levels were in order. Jerry started to feel better but since it had to do with his heart, he had to stay overnight at least. The problem was that the ER we went to did not have any beds so they had to transfer him down to another hospital that could continue his care.

I called Sherry (who was still down in Texas getting ready for her big test at school) with the news and of him having to move to another hospital. It was getting late but she decided to drive on up immediately instead of in the morning. Around 12:30 am, they loaded him up in the ambulance and proceeded at 90 mph (completely unnecessary for a stabilized man, in my opinion, but still a lot of fun) the whole way down to Norman, with me doing my best to keep up. Once we got to Norman, they took him in and were looking for him a bed. However, Jerry was a little disoriented so they decided to do a CAT scan to make sure everything was okay. Sherry got there right in time to hear the results. They saw something a little strange on the scan and but we thought since Jerry had an aneurysm earlier in the year (April), this was just a little scar tissue and it was nothing to worry about. We all but dismissed it. We are glad they didn't.

Pretty much by the next day, his heart was doing just fine (great news) but they were still concerned even more about the CAT scan results. They wanted to do an MRI on his head to see a more detailed picture of what they saw on the CAT scan. Later that night, when we were waiting for the Neurologist to come in with the results, another doctor came in instead. We hadn't met this doctor before. He started going over treatment options but we didn't even know what he was talking about. Sherry asked him who he was and he said, "Oh, I'm the cancer doctor and I'm hear to talk to Jerry about the results of his MRI." This caught everyone off guard. Apparently, from April, when he had his last MRI done, until now in late September, a quarter-size tumor had grown in Jerry's head. The doctor said he was 99.999% sure it was cancerous but would have to wait for a biopsy to know for sure. We were shocked at the news, to say the least.

The next day, Sherry contacted the Neurosurgeon in Texas that had done Jerry's back surgery a few years ago. His specialty was actually brain surgery on oncology patients and since he knew Jerry from the previous surgery, he was the right man for the job. Sherry drove Jerry down to Plano Medical Center that Saturday evening to meet up with the doctors to begin their plan of attack on the tumor. After the full body MRI, we were relieved that the tumor was not a part of a larger invasion of his whole body; it was only in his head. (Not much pun intended...) They believed they it was in such a place to where a biopsy was possible (read: operable), which was good news. The doctors decided that he could go home on Tuesday since his heart was in good shape and there was nothing else that could be done until the bioptic surgery, which had been scheduled for the following Monday (Oct 8^th).

So for the better part of a week, Jerry was able to go home and hang out with family and friends and (lots of) dogs before he had to report back. Kimi and I took off of work from Thursday through the following Tuesday to be in Texas. In the span of those few days, we were able to celebrate our 4^th wedding anniversary with a quick trip to a wonderful bed and breakfast (which had been booked for 2 months) and also was able to witness (in HD on a 65" flat screen) OU defeat Texas in a title-hopes-dream-smashing-victory. Even with all of the news hanging over our heads, we were able to make the best of things and enjoy each others company.

On that Monday morning, Jerry went in for his surgery. Since they couldn't have been more invasive than they already were, they decided to remove the whole tumor at the same time as they were doing the biopsy. It was a long surgery but they believe they were able to get all of it. Jerry made it through just fine and was awake, alert, and talking afterwards. All in all, this was great news. The only side effects thus far have to do with headaches and some swelling, which has caused speech problems. The doctors say when the swelling goes down, everything should go back to normal for him.

He was released from the hospital this past weekend and has been at home resting. Tomorrow, (Thursday 18^th) we should find out the results of the biopsy to see what we are dealing with. We're praying for good news. Sherry has been sending out email updates every few days and has been bombarded with prayers and support from numerous family, friends, and churches. I will send out an email with updated information as we know what is happening. Our family would appreciate any prayers you would offer up on our behalf. Jerry is in good spirits so we know that is just another prayer that has been answered.

Thank you all. God bless.
Jason