Adam Blumer

Dear Praying Friends, Mom and Dad met with an oncologist (tumor specialist) and radiologist today at the Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee. (Special thanks to my sister, Andrea, for driving them there from her home in Madison.) The day was long but encouraging. Doctors want to operate on Dad on Sunday, Feb. 22, and remove at least half if not all of his brain tumor. They feel confident that they can perform surgery without too much risk. Dad may suffer some minor side effects like numbness to his left side or some impairment to his vision. (They say that the tumor has already caused some damage to his vision.) While in surgery, the surgeon is hoping to insert some wafers of chemo or packets of radiation into what’s left of Dad’s tumor to zap what’s left. This technique has often been effective. The doctors said they operated on…

I wrote this yesterday from the hospital and e-mailed it to the Blumer family mailing list: Dear family, I am writing to you from a waiting room at the hospital. We talked to the doctor a short while ago after Dad’s biopsy. Here is what we know: Dad does have cancer. It’s called a meninglioma. On a scale of 1 to 4 (4 being the most aggressive), Dad has a 3 and possibly a 4 (further tests will determine whether it’s a 4). They are giving him about 13 months with chemo and radiation. The doctors do not feel comfortable with removing the tumor, which is about 5 centimeters in size. However, there is some good news. This type of cancer did not originate from anywhere else in his body, and the rest of his body (as far as tests show now) is clean. Also, this type of cancer is…

I’m afraid I have difficult news to share. Mom called me a little while ago, and I’m here to share it with you so you can know how to pray. John and Andrea (my sister and her husband) arrived, and Mom and Dad are heading back to Newberry now. The doctor who looked over the MRI is certain that Dad has cancer. I guess they can tell a lot from the MRI. The cancer is also inoperable, which means they are unable to remove it without causing damage to Dad’s brain and impairing him in some way. The good news is that there is no second tumor. There is only the one.