Today (July 31) is the sixth day since Judy's cancer surgery. Judy went into surgery expecting the surgeon to remove a malignant tumor situated in the upper lobe of her right lung, but when the surgeon opened her right thoracic cavity, he found cancer in all three lobes of her right lung. This necessitated the removal of Judy's entire right lung. Her recovery since then has been up and down. Saturday night they removed her central IV line, which entered the carotid artery through a catheter on the right side of her neck. The catheter extended from the entry point in her neck down to her heart. As the central line was removed, she experienced arterial fibrillation (heart arrhythmia) and was moved to the cardiac floor and had a heart monitor put on her. The good news is that she has not had any re-occurrence of any heart arrhythmia.
All this has left her quite weak, but yesterday she got out of bed and walked from her bed to the room doorway and back. She did this twice, but was quite exhausted after each time. The doctor has not given us any indication as to when she will be released. We ask for your prayers that she would quickly acclimate to having only one lung. Thank you for all your prayers, emails, cards, and calls. We continue to look to the Lord for His daily grace.
Pastor Dan & Judy Merchant
1401 Plum St,
Tipton, IA 52772
merchantdanjudy@hotmail.com