There's been a lot going on since my last Dad-related post. The most important thing, though, is that he had surgery to remove the tumor, and it was a complete success.

They found a doctor in Pittsburgh, with some relation to my grandfather. I believe he was one of Bepaw's students. (For those of you who don't know, my grandfather was a neurosurgeon, and apparently he was really good at it.)

The options available to Dad in Birmingham were Gamma knife, radiation, or opening up his cranium to get at the tumor.

The doctor in PA had a procedure that would extract the tumor through the nose, using arthroscopic techniques. I must confess that every mention of the surgery brings to my mind an image of that scene from Total Recall, where the governator removes that homing device from his head by way of his nose. It was not pleasant to watch.

In any case, Dad's doing much better now. His recovery was a bit toughre than we had expected, but he called on Christmas, saying that he was feeling MUCH better even than the night before. So well, in fact, that he'd been able to go to the Christmas church service at the church across the street from where they stayed. What a gift to be able to feel well for the first time in a week on Christmas day.

So there you have it. Please keep praying for him. We may not know for about a month after the surgery whether it was effective in stopping his massive headaches, but we hope that will be the case. The doctors put the probability of that at around 70%, so there's a good chance, but it's not to be taken for granted.