REPORT FROM SURGERY

Today is Wednesday, July 1, 2009 and it is the best day I could ever imagine. As promised, I will give you a report on Kim's condition. But first and most important I want to give thanks to God and give Him all of the Glory, Honor and Praise. Then I want to thank all of you and your friends and church families and all the people that have prayed for Kim. Prayer is the answer to all of our problems and today I saw prayer answered in the most powerful way. Kim was taken to surgery a few minutes after 8:00AM and she was as calm and serene as I have ever seen her. She was not "teary" and was just so sweet to everybody, even the nurse that put in the IV and wasn't really as loving and kind as I would have had her. She kissed us and they rolled her away. A room full of family and friends waited for her. As usual, we took up the entire space and we had our snacks and our papers and our books and our cell phones and we just set up shop for the remainder of the time that this ordeal would take. After a few hours - approximately three or so hours - the nurse took us to a room to wait for Dr. Netterville. Of course you can imagine the tension in that room. For once, the Cline Sisters and their mother were totally silent. Then he came in and gave us the words that made us all just so happy. He told us that when he got into her throat things were not as bad to him as they had appeared on the inital exam. He said that there was a small tumor on the back of her tongue and he took it for biopsy. Then he went back into the area of her neck where the original tumor had been and he cleaned out all of the lymph nodes, scar tissue and any cancer cells that might possibly be there. She had a drainage tube in that neck area but no other tubes anywhere. He told us that in a few weeks she would meet with an oncologist and they would set up a schedule of chemo and radiation, probably on a weekly basis and he thought that she would be totally cured. Can you just imagine the hugging, loving and smiling that started at that point? Then it was back to the cell phones and the list of people that had to be called. She was taken to the Recovery Room and would have been removed from there after an hour but there were no available rooms on the 9th floor which is a step-down area and the rooms are monitored so that she could be checked with regularity. Finally she came out of the recovery area and we were able to kiss her and follow her up to her room. She wanted Corinne to tell her what the doctor did and what he said and while Corinne was telling her she would drift off to sleep. She is in pain and is hooked up to a lot of monitors and machines for blood pressure, heart, etc. We left her with Brad who is staying all night and she was sleeping peacefully. I hope that she can sleep and rest the remainder of the night because she has not slept many hours recently and she needs the rest. I will go out in the morning and will post when I get home. Again, I thank you for your prayers because that is the reason she got the report that she did and the reason that she can be cured. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.