I know that there are many of you who have been praying for my Dad so here is the latest news. Following several weeks of almost constant, excruciating pain and trials on medications that left him as limp as a dishrag- but mercifully pain free, he did get to see the surgeon last Tuesday.

The good news was that the MRI clearly showed the nature of the problem, a blood vessel is sitting against one of the intercranial nerves and it is correctable with surgery. Although the surgery does involve going into the skull, the surgeon was pretty confident that it is a straight forward procedure with minimal risk. There is some risk from the general anesthetic, especially given his recent heart attack so he will need a pre-op assessment by the cardiologist and anesthetist. A decision was made to book him for “urgent” surgery.

Today came the bad news. Given the state of the health care system, the wait for an OR for “urgent” surgery is four to five months. Randy and Syl are however developing some advanced skills in the titrating of medication doses and in monitoring the care he is recieving. We now have some hope that they may have found a drug combination that will allow Dad some freedom from pain and yet be able to breathe, alert enough to eat, be safe and even get a bit of pleasure out of life while he awaits his OR date. Last night was the first night in several weeks that my family felt it was safe to leave him alone overnight in the retirement home.

We know that God is in the details and are trusting that the wait is the best for Dad as at least it will give his heart some time to recover. He would appreciate yours prayers that during this time he would have some measure of pain relief and freedom from the overwhelming fear that an attack will happen at any moment. Pray for my family at home as they seek to look after Dad and for us a we make decisions about when I need to return to Canada.

It is very difficult to be away at this time but I know that the amount of time I can spend at home will have limitations. I would love to be there now to help with his care but I also want to be there through his surgery. We are now in the process of booking flights home immediately after graduation on June 19th and although Steve will need to be back to start teaching on July 15th, we are praying that I will be able to stay on until his surgery is over.