Today my brother came by to visit with Roland and the other boys. We talked a lot about what's happening and all. It's good to talk sometimes. Seems like everybody and their brother has been calling us to offer help. I tell them the best way to help right now is to pray. Pray that God makes the tumor benign when they do the surgery.

Right now the surgery is scheduled for Wednesday morning. In one of my questions I asked if it would matter if we postponed it a week to get a second opinion. The doctor said "no problem" and that he encourages us to be as comfortable as possible with our decision. While I trust our doctor, it seems impossible that it would not matter at all. Doesn't, at some point, the tumor spreads if it is cancerous? Could it happen in the week we wait to get a second opinion? I'll be asking the doctor this and a lot more questions. I'll post them when done.

The biggest thing Gina and I are dealing with right now is talking to Roland. We don't know what to say. We can probably explain the initial surgery without too much trouble. It’s the chemotherapy part that I don't know what to say. Right now Roland is feeling great; he laughs, runs, plays, and has fun. How do I tell him that, although he feels fine, he's not? Besides that, how do I tell him that to make him better (even though he doesn't feel sick) we're going to do a treatment that is going to make him feel really bad?

That bring up another question I have. If they are removing the tumor, why do they need to do chemo? I could guess that it’s to make sure they get it all but why is it so general (it travels throughout the bloodstream)?

During the surgery the surgeon is suppose to put in a "port" which is a device placed under the skin by the shoulder blade so that they can administer the chemo and draw blood easily. The down side to this is that, since it's under the skin, they have to keep sticking him over and over again. We’ve heard most kids "get used to it". That's not very reassuring. We talked with a friend of ours whose daughter had chemo. She said they put a catheter in rather than a port. The good part is they don't have to keep sticking him over and over again; the bad part is you have a tube hanging out and you can't go in water. I'll be asking the doctor about it tomorrow.

Well that’s about it for today. I mentioned earlier we are asking people to pray as a way to help. Another way is to offer advice. Sometimes it seems despite all the research we do, we are still in the dark. If you have any suggestions, please pass them along.