Prayer Request from Old Friends

I received an email last month and I thought it merited posting. Lee and Cindy are some close friends of ours. They were really helpful to us when we first were married. Also, Jennie was with Cindy when Cindy delivered Emiko, their little girl. And Cindy was with Jennie when we had Keisha. So, we're pretty close to them. He works for Honda and they moved out to Japan last year. I got this email from Lee on December 13, 2002:

Sorry to do this but I am sending out a mass e-mail because I don't have time to hack one out for all of you. Cindy was hospitalized last Friday for what we thought was a persistent cold. The vomiting nausea and light headedness didn?t go away after a week. It turns out she had a bleeding ulcer in her stomach. The loss of blood made her light headed and caused the vomiting. She kept trying to tell the doctor she just had a cold, the doctor kept looking at her like she was crazy.

After taking a look in her stomach the doctor found a 6cm tumor. They are unable to tell exactly what type of tumor but at this size it is not a good thing. The doctor keeps insisting that it is not related to the cancer she had 6 years ago. At this time the tumor has not spread to any other organs. However the doctor is guessing it will be malignant based on its size and the blood supply to it.

On Friday they operated to remove the tumor. Cindy's surgery went OK I guess. 2.5 to 3 hours from when they wheeled her in to when I saw her. They removed the tumor but had to do a major resection. They removed the lower 1/2 of her stomach then put a pleat in the bottom of the top part and reattach the hose at the bottom (sorry for the simplistic description but I'm a mechanic not a doctor). The doctor showed me the tumor. Looked like a large boneless chicken breast to me. Almost the size of a tennis ball.

The doctor thought it was contained and that it was softer than he expected (this is good but I don?t know why). We won?t know anything else until the pathology comes back in about a week. This morning she was very groggy and sore.

My mom is here now taking care of the kids. The kids are doing well all things considered. I will return to work on Monday and back to my old schedule (leave the house at 6 am and come home at 10pm 4 days a week, home at 8 on Wednesday). As long as this thing is treatable here in Japan we will stay. If it becomes too difficult we would reconsider this but right now Cindy is willing to stay.

All this makes me realize life is too short to worry about the details. I love this woman desperately and would do anything for her. If she changes her mind about staying so will I. In the mean time we realize we need to enjoy every moment and see and do as much as we can while we can.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.
Lee B. & family