Update on John

Well we arose at 4 a.m. and left Iron Ridge by 4:30 a.m. Once we arrived at St. Luke's all started moving very quickly. The angiogram was completed without any complications. The doctor met with us to report that it was just as he suspected: the cavernoma was nothing to worry about. The MRI from Friday, however, revealed that John's Chiari Malformation was causing a backup of fluid in his spinal cord. After recovering from the angiogram, we headed up to Dr. Ahuja's office and waited FOREVER to see him. Basically, John needs to have the surgery. Many people with Chiari Malformation need no treatment at all, but the rapid onset of symptoms John has had coupled with the fact that his symptoms are not resolving themselves, indicates to Dr. Ahuja that John needs the decompression surgery..... sooner rather than later. We are pretty sure that he will have surgery next week Wednesday. John is going for a second opinion this Thursday; however, it seems pretty clear that he will hear the same diagnosis.

SOOOOOO! Rally the troops! We need your help! Of course and OBVIOUSLY your continued prayer support is VITAL to us. We need guidance and wisdom for the surgeon and all medical professionals who are on John's case. We need peace and calm for our entire family. One of our big concerns is finances how will we pay the bills with John out of work; however, today we really came to grips with the fact that we have to in faith rely upon God for that . Once we came to grips with that, we realized that we both have other underlying concerns: this is BIG surgery, what if something happens? John is NOT good at taking it easy, how will he rest enough to recover? Plain and simple, gut-wrenchingly honest, we are both VERY scared. So please continue to pray.

Some practical ways in which we could use some help:

1. We are having an impromptu prayer meeting/chili dinner on Saturday night. We wish we were inviting y'all to come see our new abode under better terms; however, life doesn't always work out the way we wish. We would like to invite anyone who'd like to come pray over John with us. Since it is such a long way for most of you to drive, I will be making a HUGE pot of chili to feed peops, and we'll have a bonfire as well. If you'd like to come, please let me know via blog comment/text/voicemail/e-mail so I know how many people to expect. Arrive about 5 p.m. We'll pray for John after we eat and before we start a fire. Also our address is:

W2548 Nevada Heights Rd
Iron Ridge, WI 53035

2. The kiddos... if surgery is next week Wednesday, we could really use some help with the kiddos. I already have Friday covered. But I need helpers with Wednesday and Thursday. If you would like to have the Kastner children at all, let us know (don't be afraid, they really aren't their normal blogable selves for anyone other than their mother).