March 5, 2004

Dear Friends and Family,

Many of you have been expressing your love and concern for Michele, Josephine and me over the last few weeks. Thank you so much! For others of you this letter will come as first news and a surprise about the recent events that have been surrounding our lives. In either case, we are praising God for our friends and family that care for us so deeply. My intent in this letter is to answer the many questions you have about my (Scott’s) health and let you know exactly how you can pray for us and help us.

The bottom line is that I (Scott) need to have brain surgery. The Doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago (one of the world’s finest facilities) have just last week discovered a tumor in my left front temporal lobe and will attempt to remove it the morning of March 12th. Thereafter the tumor will undergo analysis in the lab and in five days we should know if it is fast growing and cancerous or slow growing and benign. My Doctor expects that it will be a level two benign tumor on a scale of 1 – 4 with level one being the best case scenario, while the level four would be the worst. The difficulty is that Neurosurgeon Dr. James Chandler will be able to remove most of but not quite the entire tumor without causing damage to my past memories and ability to speak. There is a reasonable chance however; that if the tumor is not totally benign and slow growing that chemotherapy will be able to knockout the sliver that extends into the rear portion of my temporal lobe. If it’s a level one tumor we’ll be able to leave it alone and it won’t affect me much at all for the foreseeable future.

The good news is that – at least I’m told – the portion of the brain that is being removed is among the least necessary parts of the brain and that it shouldn’t affect me in the long run. (Personally I get the feeling I need all the brain power I can get, while my Dad tells me not to worry because they won’t find much in there anyway!) Despite the difficulties we still love to laugh as often as possible! I may have some difficulty with short term memory for awhile but the brain is a marvelous instrument and will quickly adjust. I am hopeful that I will be able to return to my regular roles as husband and father rather quickly.

It would be an overstatement to say that I’m not afraid or nervous however. I fully believe in my heart Paul’s writing in Philippians 1:21 which states “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” but I am also fearful about the possibility of leaving behind my lovely wife whom is an incredible source of joy and influence in my life and my precious seven month old daughter. I ache to be a strong, significant and supporting husband and father for a long, long time! I love them so much and pray constantly that I can be here for them and I believe I will be. God isn’t done with me yet and there’s so much more I believe He has for me to do!

One thing we would ask you to do for us right now is pray, but please do not call! We appreciate all of the support and love but we are being swamped with phone calls and it’s extremely tiring emotionally and physically. We are so grateful for the love and support we are receiving, it is awesome and overwhelming, but we’re on the phone too much. Please don’t feel we don’t appreciate your efforts, it’s just that trying to explain what’s happened on the phone all day long is simply overwhelming. Fortunately, we do have a few friends who have given us suggestions on how to handle all of this.