Good morning to everyone. Today is the big day. We are headed to the hospital for surgery. Fortunately, we don't have to be there until 11:00 a.m. so we got to sleep in. Wonderful!!

Thanks to everyone for the e-mails, phone calls, cards, notes, food baskets and goodies. I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support. I even woke this morning to a banner in my front yard with balloons and blessings. I don't know what to say except thanks and I so appreciate the prayers.

We met Monday (two days ago) with the surgeon and again discussed surgery. He explained that his intention is to leave my arm, but he will have to remove a lot of tissue around the tumor and this will involve some nerves. At the least, this will leave me with some weakness in my shoulder area. Depending on how involved the other nerves (brachial for medical people) are will determine what function I have left in my arm or hand. I have had quite a bit of numbness in my radial and medial nerves over the past month or so. I don't know if that is because of the radiation treatments or damage from the tumor. Fortunately, it seems to be mostly transient - lasting only a few minutes when it is at it's worst.

We were told to expect a 3-4 hour surgery today. I doubt that I will be able to post anything new here myself, but I have asked my son Clint to post a couple of updates throughout the day as things progress, so check back often for details as they are posted.

God bless you all. Thank you!

Jim