Katy update -- April 3, 2005

There is a white board in Katy’s hospital room on the wall across from her bed. The nurse on shift writes her name and underneath that is the goal for the day. We wrote that the goal for today was to meet with Katy’s neurosurgeon and hear the read from the MRI. As the day moved toward noon, the anticipation accelerated.

Dr. Willis finally arrived. He seems to be a good man, was gentle in his approach. He had some really hard things to say. Katy’s tumor is about six centimeters. It is sausage shaped and inside her temporal lobe. It is directly next to the parts of the brain that control her motor abilities for her right side and also her language use (hearing and understanding words and using them). The tumor is not on top of the brain but coming from it.

Determining the kind of tumor, what sort of treatment will be needed next after surgery (chemo or radiation) and any future prognosis can’t be determined until the biopsy and surgery take place.

That is scheduled for this Wednesday. This Wednesday! The plan is to freeze slice the tumor and biopsy it, and then remove as much of the tumor as possible.

We asked Dr. Willis as many questions as we could think of, which weren’t nearly as many as probably could be asked. It’s hard to think on your feet when faced with the shock of the reality, which is only really hours old. Katy is such a strong young woman. Her tears just streamed down her face, trying so hard to grasp what has been happening in these two rapid fire days.

We have heard of multiple spontaneous prayer times of groups coming together to pray for Katy, just today. We heard that there were about five different gatherings this evening. The one that gathered around Katy at the hospital was outside in the “healing garden”. There were about 25 that came over, having heard from someone that we wanted to pray together tonight. This prayer time was sweet. The kindnesses and desire to love Katy were profound. So far, the days have been like this. Gatherings of brothers and sisters from the ministry, friends and her family moving in and out of Katy’s room all day, leaning on each other. The hospital is being very good to us to let Katy’s room be so full of people most of the day and night.

Tuesday will be a celebration for Katy’s birthday, because Wednesday is her real birth day. We’ll meet back at the healing garden. Our prayer is that on her birthday where God gave her life the first time, this 26th birthday will be another significant life-giving day from God.

Thank you for praying, for interceding for her, for crying out to God for her healing. Pray with us that the tumor will be fully removed. That the surgeon would be supernaturally strengthened to do this job. That Katy would have peace.

Love you, Kit