From Angela

I know I haven't updated the family in awhile. So here goes. Alanna has surgery on December 10th at the University of Minnesota. During this surgery they will remove her pancreas and do what is called an auto-islet cell transplant. This is where they take the insulin producing cells from her pancreas and inject them into her liver. After a few weeks, the liver will start producing insulin much like the pancreas would and will hopefully leave her without having to worry about becoming diabetic from her disease (which has left her father insulin dependent diabetic). It will also leaver her pain free. Howard unfortunately cannot have this surgery since he has no cells left.

Howard is on two different pain medications (very strong ones) 4-6 times per day for his daily pain and has missed a lot of work because of it. I cannot tell you how many times we have not gotten a paycheck. Ugh. That makes it rough around Christmas. We are trying to not dip into our savings but we have had to on numerous occasions.

I have surgery on monday where they will remove cervical (upper) discs 6 and 7. I will be in a hard neck brace and will be unable to work for 8 weeks. I will get partial pay but not a whole paycheck after a few weeks. More money lost at Christmas but the doctor's do not seem to have any other resolution to get me off of 3 different pain medications 4 x per day.

Wow, I was trying to keep it simple! But that's the update on us so far. Just keep us in your prayers and I will let you know more as I know.

All my love
Angela