"Operation" Ellinger

I'm suddenly feeling like our life is a never ending game of operation (you know - the milton bradley game where you try to get the parts off the board without the game buzzing at you?) With Nathan it was always just ONE MORE operation. Now, we think that's finally true. So recap for my family for the last 3 years:

2006 - Mom has serious internal bleeding and admitted to UVRMC. Ends up spending 3 solid months in the hospital.

2007 - Mom has biopsy of strange lump in her thigh. 3 months later the doctors realize what the lump is. Mom passed away of calciphilaxis in June. Jake and I spent the last year of mom's life caring for her at the hospital and at home. We became home health care nurses, wound nurses, took her to dozens of doctor appointments etc. It was a break in period for what was to come.

2008 - Nathan born. From January 2008 - June 2009 Nathan endures 16 operations.

March 2009 - I have jaw surgery and spend 8 weeks "sipping cider through a straw".

August 2009 - Jake has been having pain in his right groin area for quite some time but decides its really starting to bother him. He goes to a pediatrist who says there is something wrong with his hip and refers him to an orthopedist. That doctor orders an x-ray. The diagnosis?

Jake has a bone tumor aproximately 2-3 inches below the right socket of the hip that adjoins to the femur. Its about five inches wide and 3 1/2 inches long. Roughly the size of a baseball. Its probably benign, but they can't be for sure about it. One thing that is for sure is that it HAS TO COME OUT. Jake is seeing a tumor specialist in Salt Lake in a week and a half.

Poor Ellie. I told her last night that Dad's body is sick and he will have to go to the hospital to have an operation. Her reply was (in a VERY CONCERNED TONE,"Does this mean that Dad won't be able to eat either?" All she has seen with operations is that Grandma Ellinger wouldn't eat for a long time, that Nathan doesn't eat orally, and that when I had my jaw surgery I didn't eat for a long time. She's a smart little kid to put that all together.

Please pray for Jake. I think he's deservedly a little more freaked out todey than he was yesterday when he found out. But he's a guy and won't let it out too much that he's nervous about this.