Update from Rusty & Valerie

Dear praying friends,

First of all, my apologies for not sending out my first prayer request for Rusty as a BCC.
Second of all, thank you all for praying for Rusty and for us. We so appreciate your lifting him up to the Great Physician. Please continue to pray for him as cancer was found but thankfully seems to have been contained. More details below.

And now, here is Rusty's update, written by him:
Thank you so much for praying as I went through surgery last week! Recovery has been quick and stress free. I spent the week after surgery with Mike, Tara, and Royan, who took excellent care of me.

As in all things, there is good and bad news. I received the pathology report of the tumor in the middle of last week. Unfortunately cancer was detected in the tumor, labeled seminoma. At this point it appears that the cancer was confined to the testicle. And while there is no indication that the cancer has spread, we will be keeping a close eye on one suspicious lymph node. According to my urologist, seminoma "is the good one to have." It spreads slowly and has a 95% to 99% cure rate, which is incredibly encouraging.

For those interested in the technical stuff, this is currently labeled as T1B. 

Last week I also wrapped up my CT scans with a scan of my chest. Praise the Lord it came back clear! In addition, the urologist ordered one more round of blood work, called "tumor markers" yesterday after my post op. They also came back normal!

I'm thankful to have many more answers than I did two weeks ago. So where do I go from here? Based on the suspicious lymph node, I've requested a second opinion from IU Health in Indianapolis. Unknown to me, IU is the world center for testicular cancer. In fact, Lance Armstrong was treated for advanced testicular cancer at IU and lived to tell the tale! So the last week of March I'll spend seeing several oncologists and one more urologist to cover all my bases.

​Then we'll be able to make a decision on whether to continue observation or move ahead with a specific treatment. 

Thank you for your support during this difficult time. My community here in Warsaw and around the world (literally) has been incredible! Please continue to pray that tumor markers would be clear and that this one lymph node would behave itself!