Devine Intervention Round 2

Alex's surgery with Dr. Devine began at 2:00. I am waiting in his room and they tell me he should be up here in about 8 hours from the time we checked in-so later tonight.

We met with Dr. Devine and his team yesterday and they marked the other side of his abdomen for placement of a new stoma. They will take down his current ostomy, resect the last few inches of his small intestine (where the active Crohn's disease is), open and clean out his current wound and fistula tract, place a wound vac & put the new stoma on his left side. They are also scoping and biopsying what is left of his colon while he is under sedation to screen for cancers, since that has not been done in a few years. He had a spot of basal cell skin cancer removed from his left temple yesterday and a precancerious spot on his nose frozen. We'll get the results from that biopsy next week to see if we need to do anything else to that area either before we leave here or when we return to Kansas City. Whew! And that's why it will be awhile until he's done!

Specific prayer requests:
1. Guidance and wisdom for Dr. Devine and his surgery team
2. Clear biopsy results
3. Good pain managment during recovery. They'll expect him to be up and walking tonight shortly after he comes up to his room.
4. Patience for Alex as he recovers, grace for his nagging wife and the ability to rest and recover quickly.

Thank you all for your prayers up until this point. Keep them coming! We love you all and will update as soon as we know more.

Phil. 4:6 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."