i'm going to post the emails we've been sending out this week about my dad. thank you all for your prayers. the LORD is good. :) (starting from monday's email to today's):
Monday Evening
Hi Friends & Family,
As you all know, this morning my dad had surgery to remove the “whatever-it-is” from his right lung. Well, the “whatever-it-is” turned out to be cancer after all. The doctor called it an aggressive cancer. When asked about that, he said it was poorly differentiated. The surgery lasted longer than expected, partly because this spot was cancer and mostly due to the fact that my dad’s lung is covered in sticky adhesions (the doctor said that this was most likely due to trauma to his chest at some point in his life). The doctor ended up taking out the whole upper right lobe. What’s supposed to happen is that the rest of the lung should fill up that empty space. In my dad’s case, this didn’t happen, and if I remember correctly, it’s because the rest of the lung is stuck to the diaphragm. So as of now, my dad has an empty space in his chest. This is not good, as it can get infected from bacteria floating into it. What we need to be fervently praying for this week is that the empty space would close up on its own (our God is the God of miracles, amen? AMEN!). If the space doesn’t fill up, then he’ll have to have another surgery to fill it up with something else (i.e. fat from the stomach area). A couple of other prayer requests is for the pain – my dad is in A LOT of pain. Pray that it can be managed well. And also, they took out some more lymph nodes to have them checked for cancer – please pray that they come back negative.
All of you are a blessing in my dad’s life and we as a family appreciate and covet all of your prayers during this time. Thank you so much for all the support you have given and continue to give during this time. Praise the Lord for all the peace that he’s bestowed upon our family, especially my dad. I can’t imagine having to go through something like this without knowing that the Lord is in control of everything that’s happening.
If I’ve forgotten anything important, I will send a follow-up email, but we will keep you posted as we find things out.
Blessings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Betsy Ocampo (Barry’s daughter)
Tuesday Evening
Dear Friends & Family,
PRAISE THE LORD! He’s answered YES to our prayers. The empty space has filled up by itself! No extra surgery to fill in that space.
He’s still in the ICU at Mercy Southwest, probably for 3 to 4 more days. He can have visitors any time EXCEPT for 6:30-8:30 in the morning AND the evening. That’s during shift change for the staff.
Things to still be praying for are:
The results from the lymph nodes should be back tomorrow – pray that they are negative! And we’re also supposed to find out what kind of cancer was on his lung tomorrow.
He has an air leak in his lung – pray that it closes quickly.
Pain management – it doesn’t feel so great when he coughs or hiccups.
The Lord is doing miraculous things in my dad’s body. Thank you all so much for your prayers and please continue to pray for the days and weeks ahead. I have an amazing father who’s faith seems to be growing stronger every time I see him. Praise the Lord for him and his life and the blessing he is to all of us.
Blessings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Betsy
Wednesday Morning (Written by my mom)
Hi Everyone,
Well we are truly seeing our prayers being answered! Barry's lab results showed no cancer in any of the 20 lymph nodes and, the cancer turned out to be not as aggressive as the doctor believed it to be on Monday. They catagorized it as Stage 1b lung cancer. We are very, very happy to hear this. He continues to heal, and as Barry puts it, he is in God's healing grip! Thank you so much for all your thoughts, concerns and prayers. Please continue them! He has a ways to go to be fully recovered.
Love, Melissa
