Dear CCAM Partners and Friends,

Thank you for your prayers so far. Needless to say, we covet them even more for the upcoming week.

Yesterday Buntheep was readmitted to the hospital as planned. The eye and ear specialists performed base-line tests. Buntheep's hearing was normal. Her right eye was still totally blind (although at certain times last week she could see a light or moving shadows). The left eye had retained the renewed 20/20 vision, and the peripheral vision field for that eye had actually increased since last week.

Today the doctors prepared to perform the procedure to embolize (block) the blood vessels providing blood to the tumor. However, when they got in and researched the situation, they found that the vessels providing the most blood to the tumor were radiating off of the artery. They decided that it would be too dangerous to block them. There were a couple of small vessels that they considered blocking, but then they decided against it, since the benefit would be minimal and the risk great, should the injected particles happen to back up and cause a stroke by blocking other areas. Therefore, no actual embolization was accomplished. They saw that some substantial blood vessels to the tumor were already blocked and dysfunctional (probably the ones plugged by the doctors during the first surgery to stop the excessive bleeding).

The pictures of their findings have been shared with Dr. Aldana and the other doctors. Tomorrow Buntheep will have another MRI to help assess the strategy for Thursday's surgery.

Now Buntheep is recovering from the present procedure. She floats in and out of sedation and is being monitored closely for bleeding and other abnormalities. So far everything seems to be fine. The only complaint that Buntheep has voiced when awake is that she has a ringing in her ears.

Please continue to pray for God's solution. Please pray that the tumor will shrink, making it easier to remove on Thursday. Pray that it will disentangle itself from around the artery and retreat from endangering the optic nerves, the inner ears, or the brain.

Now I must close this email, otherwise I will miss the shuttle to go back to the hospital. Thanks again for your encouragement and your prayers.

In His Hands,
Gioia and Buntheep

← Previous                         Next →