Details from Little Rock

Working on 3 hrs of sleep, I am going to keep this brief and to the point. It has been a whirlwind the last 36 hours, as we prepared and flew to Little Rock, Arkansas at 6 AM this morning. We were able to spend time with Dr. Gazi Yasargil, M.D. this afternoon, and it is an absolute blessing to have him as Laura's surgeon. He walked us through what will take place after recommending that we move forward with the surgery. He suggested we "clean it out of there" to provide Laura a seizure-free life. Here are the highlights:

• Surgery to take place around 7-8 AM Monday morning
• No ego, absolute servant to his patient....amazing to say for the "Neurosurgeon of the Century"...that's for real!
• There is no explanation for why these tumors happen, they have yet to determine a cause, but he believes viruses may be the cause. He said there's no risk of passing this on to children, and that after about 6 months we can start trying for babies.
• Fortunately, he has performed 500 surgeries on this type of tumor, so he is very relaxed and confident about it...even has a classification system for this particular tumor named after him!
• He has been involved in over 10,000 brain surgeries (so he has a little experience)
• Laura has a 90% chance of coming out likely feeling better than ever due to having this mass removed with no recurring effects
• She won't even have her head fully shaved...they do it all through a 4-5 inch long, shaved stripe above her ear so she can hide the scar with her hair for the most part
• She could possibly be sent home as early as next Friday or Saturday, or as long as Wednesday the 22nd
• She is not going to be limited to bed rest when we return home, in fact he said she could, walk swim and go cycling, but no diving...which we found hilarious
• She will not be allowed to work until the end of September, and even then start back very slowly

There's a lot more, I'm sure, but that's all I can remember for now! It's been a crazy 24 hours to say the least, since we didn't even have plane tickets 24 hours ago! We are so at peace about this and really feel like God's hand is at work in picking out the perfect surgeon and giving us a calming peace that we are doing the right thing.

Laura will spend the day tomorrow receiving a battery of tests, from 7:30am-6pm. Another specialty MRI will be Saturday morning early, then we'll have Saturday and Sunday to rest before Monday morning's surgery. Her parents will come Sunday and spend the week here; my parents will come Monday for a few days. We also found out that thus far the other labwork has all been completely normal! Praise God!

We will update you more this weekend before the big day. In the meantime, continue to pray for comfort and peace for us which has been so apparent so far. Pray for Laura as she goes through a long day of testing. Pray for safe travels for our families as they travel to be with us.

Thank you to everyone who has joined us on this journey of faith and prayer toward Laura's total healing! We can't tell you how much everyone's support and prayers have meant.