Good News!

Well... He did it! Tim survived his surgery! And in record time! After preparing ourselves for an all-day surgery of at least 8 hours, both surgeons came out to talk to us at 12:15, after only 4 hours. My heart skipped a beat wondering why they were both out to talk to us, since we were expecting only Dr. Cameron, who was to come out and give a report after his part was complete. They said that the surgery went very well and that they took out as much as they could, and that there was less than 5% of the original tumor remaining!

For those those of you who don't like details, you can stop reading here and just know that the guardian angels in the O.R. had their hands on Tim and that one enormous dose of prayer coming from the mouths of likely 1000 people made all the difference in the world. God answers prayer! He is almighy, and powerful beyond belief! Tim is sore, but doing well on morphine. He seems to be almost himself today.

Here are some more details... if you are interested...
There was almost NO blood loss (unbelievable since during the first surgery, they would just "look at it and it would start to bleed", said Dr. Gunnersson). He also said that the chemo had certainly worked as the tumor had shrunk considerably, that it was very hard and had only a small blood supply. Because it was so hard, it was very adhered to the surrounding structures, including the nerves. They did have to cut one nerve (they think it was L1) because the tumor was completely wrapped around it. They also think this nerve was likely not working already anyways because of how squished it was. We won't know which nerve it was for sure until later, but Tim is already kicking both legs! The rest of the tumor was too dangerous to remove, so they left it. They also only went in ONE entry site, from the side. (they were anticipating two sites)
Right after, when Tim was still knocked out, they sent him for another MRI, the results of which we are still waiting for. There was concern from the MRI two weeks ago that the tumor may have started to spread into the nerves in the area because they lit up on the MRI. It is also possible that they lit up only because of being inflamed. So they did a lumbar puncture after the MRI to check his spinal fluid.
Now we wait 7-10 days for the pathology reports from the biopsy of the tumor, checking if it has chaged at all, if it is just dead tissue or not. Then they decide if we just observe for now, or if he needs more chemo.
Phew... what a mouthful! So today Tim is still in the PCCU but is well enough to move to the ward as soon as a bed opens up. Oh yah... they also extubated him right away and took out his catheter! Last time it was 2 days later! This morning Tim took of the rest of his heart leads so they just left them off. See... he is being feisty already!
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for all your prayers and thoughts for Timothy yesterday. Ken and I felt such peace about the whole thing and couldn't believe how fast and well everything went! He didn't even need a blood transfusion! Wow! Praise God! So now we wait again for pathology reports but you know what? We don't even really care because this part is DONE and the cancer is almost GONE! And Timothy made the doctors come in and scratch their heads and say," Wow! He is doing this good?" and they both looked quite surprised. That's what a heavy duty dose of prayer will do...
I love you guys so much! Thanks again!