Some bad news and tough decisions to come...

After my first surgery in 2008, I developed two hernias in areas that were weakened by the surgery. One of the hernias is quite large and complicated. I have spent the last year looking into ways to repair it effectively and safely. It has sent me to doctors in Cleveland and Boston. Both suggested that if I lost weight I would have the best chance of the repair lasting. Since last July, I have lost about 60 pounds, but was planning to wait another year until I had lost it all. The hernia has been annoying at times, but it has not caused me serious problems until now.

When I began taking pain medication, I became more constipated and my hernia began changing. It was getting progressively larger and my attempts to manage it has been less productive. On Tuesday, I began vomiting. My doctor put me on a stronger medicine hoping to clear things out. After some small progress, I began vomiting again on Wednesday. On my doctor's advice, my mom took me to the ER, and I was admitted to CDH last night.

X-rays and a CT scan show that I have a bowel obstruction, which was caused by the pain medication and the hernia. They put in a very uncomfortable NG tube, which helped deal with my nausea, but so far the obstruction has not cleared. The surgeon at CDH, who I don't know anything about, but seems confident, wants to do another X-ray in the morning. He said that if it hasn't cleared by then, that he thinks it will be time to do surgery, because the longer it stays obstructed the more dangerous it gets.

Prior to this development, I learned that there is a piece of bowel near the tumor, which means that the more optimistic plan wouldn't be possible. I was going to begin five weeks of radiation and chemo on Monday. Now that is on hold until this problem is resolved.

Please pray for The Lord to heal my obstruction tonight, as it is a surgery with lots of risks of complications. Also, any delay in the treatment of my tumor leaves me in severe pain and at risk of it continuing to grow and eventually spread. In addition, having surgery means I will be out of work and graduate school a lot longer and this could have a wide range of learning and financial implications.

Needless to say, this has been a really tough couple of days, and I have some hard days ahead. Please pray for me, my family and the doctor to make the right decisions. Pray that I will trust His Plan, even if it seems like a hard road to walk.