the banana mystery.

When we were first having Mike's swollen lymph node checked out, we were often asked if he had any symptoms to which we would always say - None. And then almost as a joke Mike would add "except when I eat bananas, the side of my throat feels funny". As you know by now, it turns out that this is where his cancer mass is located. Our first visit to the Nebraska Medical Center was to try to locate the cancer mass that had sent the random squamous cells to his lymph node. Before Dr. Lydiatt scoped Mike's nasal passage and throat that day, Mike stated that he was betting it was on the left side of his throat / neck because of the banana thing, our only symptom. And he was right. We are kind of waiting for someone in the medical arena to shed some light on the banana symptom. So far, no one has had a clue.

But we are exceedingly grateful that there is no mystery about what treatment plan we should pursue. It is a knee-bender for us to be heading to St. Louis tomorrow for our pre-surgery appointment with Dr. Bruce Haughey at 1pm Tuesday, March 29th at Barnes Jewish Hospital. We will get to hear from Dr. Haughey's own lips why he recommends robotic laser surgery as Mike's primary treatment and what exactly his plans are for Mike. May I say it again - we are ecstatic to be working with a surgeon as capable as Dr. Haughey and actually anticipate the journey that will lead Mike down this road to healing.

Please pray for traveling mercies, for wisdom and blessing for Dr. Haughey, for a connection with Dr. Haughey and his staff, and that Mike's body would somehow be really ready for the surgery next week. We will fly back to St. Louis April 4-12th for his surgery on April 5th. More details to follow about the surgery later this week after our appointment...