A Weight Has Been Lifted

Hello all!

As many of you already know Reyn made it through surgery exceptionally well.  He went into surgery with a BP of 112/72 so this tells you my sweet husband was truly at peace.  Even I had a calm that could not be described while he was in surgery.  I know it was certainly the "peace that surpasses all understanding" made possible only through Christ.

The team at Duke began surgery just before 8AM this morning and it ended around 12:30PM. Reyn is spending the night in ICU and as long as he continues to do well he will be moved to a regular room.  We have been told he should be released by Sunday or Monday and we will then spend a few days in Durham in order to ensure we are close if an emergency does arise.  We were finally able to see Reyn around 4:15PM and he was pretty groggy but doing well.  His facial, hands, and leg movements are excellent and he "smiles" on cue.  The nurses are constantly asking him to smile to check facial movement.  He even cracked a couple of jokes so I know that "my Reyn" is still my Reyn.  He asked the nurses for Sake (the drink) when they told him he was maxed out on pain meds for the moment...only Reyn!

Dr. Friedman did stop by the ICU-(which I am told can be a rare occurrence right after surgery) and answered some of my questions.  He said that he did very well and was recovering as he had hoped.  He determined that the tumor is still a low grade tumor, so this is favorable news.  His best guess is that he removed approximately 70% of the tumor but we will know more once we have our follow up appointment in 6 weeks.  At that time they will perform another MRI and we will get to see the new "picture" of his tumor.  We should also have the pathology report by Tuesday of next week and it will reveal the composition of the tumor.  We will have a better idea of the percentage of aggressive vs. less aggressive cells.   

Tonight no one can stay with Reyn but we will be there to see him first thing in the morning.  Hopefully at that time he will be moved over to a normal room and we can spend more time with him.  (There are certain visitation restrictions in ICU.) 

I will update you all as I know more but I just want to say thank you to all of you for caring about our family.  I continue to be overwhelmed at the prayer vigils, sweet notes, phone calls and meals being sent our way.  We even had a homemade dinner delivered to us tonight by a person I have never actually met...talk about God's love!  You have truly been the hands and feet of Christ to us and it's so amazing to watch the body of Christ function as God intended it!  I only hope that I can return the favor to you all someday.

Now I am off to love on our sweet baby girl and get some rest. 

Love,

Jordan