Prayers needed

Matt has a very close friend that he went to high school with that's been battling cancer for a few years. He received an email update that's really shaken us regarding Tom's status. This family is somewhat a mirror of ours...Tom and Cassi got married the same fall semester that Matt and I did (only they did it during an Aggie game - ARG!! we actually had to leave early from the game for the wedding....man-oh-man, they've heard about that one for years *grin*) and Taylor is just a few months older than Kellen. I can't imagine what Cassi must be going through...and I mean I literally can't - can't let myself even think about it...Please pray for them and what they are going through and for those that their live touch and have touched. We're going to stop by the hospital and see them on Friday if Tom is able to have visitors.

I know that God has a plan and is working in all of this, I'm just not understanding how. Maybe I/we never will. Here's the email...

I’ll pick up where Tom left off on his 7/8 email status. As he mentioned, we found out that his cancer started spreading again and he was scheduled for surgery on 7/25. During that time period, Tom ended up getting pretty sick. It got to the point that he was unable to keep down liquids. So to prevent dehydration, and with his surgeon’s advice, we ended up admitting him into the hospital the day before surgery. One thing led to another and Tom wasn’t admitted into surgery until 7:30 pm on Monday.

Just after 3:00 am on Tuesday, the surgeon came to us and informed us that the left side of his abdomen contained multiple loops of small bowel that were stuck to the anterior abdominal wall. He said tumor nodules were causing the bowel obstruction and also invading the posterior wall of the abdomen. He actually told us that he was unsure that he would be able to perform the extensive surgery……we are extremely gratefully that he decided to continue. They ended up removing about half of his small intestines and half of his colon which were obstructed; along with reconstructing his abdominal wall with cadaver tissue.

His surgeon told us that it would be longer and harder for Tom to recover from this surgery since his health was so poor coming in. After his second surgery we were only in the hospital for 10 -days. Today we are on day 17 and still counting. Tom is still only allowed to eat ice chips and an occasional Popsicle. He has had some set-backs in his recovery time. He ended up getting an infection which we are still trying to deal with. Today, we are going to start to clamp his gastrostomy (G-tube) every hour to determine if he will be able to handle his own saliva and some ice chips.

Tom’s doing ok. He has his good days and bad days……as expected. He actually looks much better now than when we brought him in over 2 weeks ago. His pain is more tolerable now and he gets up to walk around a couple of times a day.

I want to thank everyone for their prayers, calls, cards, emails, visits, flowers, plants, magazines and books. I truly believe that Tom gets stronger everyday with the help and support from all of you.

God Bless You,
Cassi, Tom, and Taylor Wallace