Visit to Dr. Peters at Kirklin Clinic (UAB)

Tuesday, January 29th

Darrell had an appointment with Dr. Glen Peters at the Kirklin Clinic on the UAB campus in Birmingham today. His appointment time was 1:00, but we left really early to make sure we could find it. We got really good directions from James Cole and Judy Garrett (by the way, both sets of directions were EXACT) and we made it down there without any problems (now, on the way back was a different story--it's crazy down there in all that traffic). James has been diagnosed with colon cancer and has been to the Kirklin Clinic to get a 2nd opinion. Judy works with deaf patients who have doctor's appointments there occasionally and does sign language interpretations for patients.

Judy had even shared with us good restaurants in the area, so we walked to one of them called Grumps Grill and it was delicious.

The Clinic was almost "overwhelming" it was so big. We had been in that "small family" environment at Crestwood and it was a big shock to go here.

Darrell first met with Dr. Sharp, a cute young female doctor who gathered all the history from Darrell and began the initial examination. She asked Darrell why he had been referred here and before Darrell could finish his sentence, she finished it with "because he's the best". Darrell said, "yeah, that's pretty much it". Then she told Darrell, "He IS the best". Isn't that just like God to arrange a 2nd opinion with the very best?!

Dr. Glenn Peters came in next and he was very nice to us and explained several things that we didn't know about vocal chords. He concurred with both the surgeon and ENT in Huntsville that the right side of the thyroid needed to be removed and radiation needed to be given to destroy the rest of the cancer cells in Darrell's neck and thyroid area. He checked Darrell's vocal chord nerve on the left side and saw that it was still inactive, yet it was not damaged. He said it would eventually come back. However, he warned us of the risk of the operation and the fact that what happened on the left side with the vocal chord nerve could happen on the right side. He said most likely it wouldn't, but that he needed to prepare us for what would happen if it did happen, which would be they would insert an emergency "trach" so that he could breathe. Apparently you must have at least one vocal chord nerve in order to breathe on your own. This would only be temporary until one of the vocal chord nerves starts "acting" again.

We are praying very "specifically" that God would heal Darrell and that his left vocal chord nerve would come back "alive" before Darrell's surgery.

Dr. Peters set Darrell's next surgery for this coming Monday, February 4th to remove the right lobe of his thyroid. We won't know a time til later this week. We'll post it here when we find out.

Please join us in prayer BELIEVING that God is doing a miracle in Darrell's life.

As a P.S., when we got home today, Jacob was sick (actually started getting sick yesterday). I took him to an urgent care center tonight and he has the flu. Please pray for his quick recovery.

Also, Gene Watkins, a neighbor of ours (he's married to Debbie "used to be Mahathey"). He was involved in an accident with a horse over the weekend. The horse attacked him and bit a huge section out of his arm and broke the other arm. Pray for his speedy recovery. Also, remember the Maynards in your prayers - for their health issues and also for Ron Gothart for his health.

God is so good! He's opened up so many opportunities for ministry for our entire family throughout this entire process. I know great things are going to happen!

We love you guys! We couldn't make it throughout this without our family and friends and their prayer support. When we are feeling low, God has sent the right person at the right time to speak words of faith and encouragement to us and share special scriptures and prayers with us.

I'd love to forget all the "bad" stuff throughout all of this and only remember the "good" stuff, but then again, we'd never know about all the "good" stuff, had the "bad" stuff not happened.

~Vickey