MRI and Neurosurgery Consult Tomorrow

Hello! Forgive me for the long silence...there hasn't really been much to update you on!

I see many people landing on my blog after searching for various acoustic neuroma questions...which really makes me want to go back and blog through the entire decision making process we endured last winter. I know it would have been helpful for me to read through a personal account when faced with so many decisions.  We shall see!

So, why am I writing now? Well, I covet your prayers...again. We are heading to UT Southwestern tomorrow morning (Friday 11/15) for another MRI and will meet with my neurosurgeon, Dr. Mickey, right afterward to review the results and make a treatment plan. This is regarding the 3cm meningioma they found along with the acoustic neuroma last year. We continue to be completely amazed at the Lord's kindness to me during the AN surgery on 2/14. Now the time has come to deal with the other tumor. This hopefully benign (10% are atypical or malignant) meningioma is on my parietal lobe and sitting on the superior saggital sinus (the largest blood vessel in the brain).


I tried to write our requests in a concise manner for an e-mail I sent to our pastors earlier this week. I am pasting it below. Thanks for praying...I plan to post updates here, so please subscribe (box in upper left hand corner if not on a mobile device) if you want them delivered to your inbox!  Or you can just click the link below:
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Specific Requests:

• that the tumor will have shrunk (or disappeared!) therefore postponing or eliminating the need for surgery
• if treatment is needed, WISDOM about how and when to do it...we are learning towards surgery (vs. gamma knife radiation) and we are thinking this calendar year (because our out-of-pocket is met)...but are these thoughts the Lord's will and best for me?
• that Dr. Mickey would be decisive and clear with us
• that the tumor would not cause a seizure before treatment...as it grows that is the biggest risk and I really want to avoid that ;)
• for my emotional well being during this process...I am not currently anxious, but as surgery nears (I am tentatively booked for 12/16...how kind of them to hold a spot for me! ;) ) my anxiety *might* grow.
• ULTIMATELY, that the Lord would be glorified in the way we walk through this with faith and keeping our eyes on Him

Praises:

• I am, by His grace, managing the single-sided deafness well (PTL for TWO ears!)
• eye dryness issues are under control (being treated with drops made with my own blood serum...crazy!)
• good insurance and medical care options here in Dallas
• for a loving church family that has come around us so well...and for pastors prayer! James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Thank you for "asking" on our behalf. Matthew 7: ⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"
In Christ,
Kerry for the Gibsons
Luke 18:1-8