Saturday, November 12 - 1:00pm

Dear family and friends,

It has been quite a journey thus far.  One that none of us anticipated or could have even imagined.  We have gone from a fairly routine procedure to a very critical situation with Hu.  It has not been easy.  We are resting in God's promises as He is faithful and sovereign.  Your prayers and God's strength have been crucial in sustaining us over the last 72 hours.     

We want to thank all of you who have been so supportive with phone calls, emails, food, offers to help in anyway, and most importantly with your prayer support.  We humbly ask that you continue to pray for our dad/husband as he continues his journey.

My dad had started his own blog, which many of you had been following.  In case you have not seen it, the link is www.huharrill.com

Here's the update since his last posting:

On Wednesday, Dad had a successful resection of the lobe of the right lung that had the malignant tumor.  He was able to get up and move around with some assistance the following day and was eating some of his favorite foods - broccoli!  However he continued to bleed significantly from his chest tube.  The bleeding continued and finally caused him to pass out as a result of losing so much blood.  The surgeon felt that he needed to take him back into surgery Friday morning in order to find the site that was actively bleeding.  Following the second surgery, he developed difficulty breathing and fluid accumulation in both of his lungs due to the significant amount of transfusions needed.  This required that he be put on a ventilator to assist with his breathing.  Shortly afterwards he had increased bleeding from his chest tube to the point that the surgeon felt that he would need to take him back to surgery again for a third time (second time in the same day) to find the source of bleeding.  In both cases, sites were identified as bleeding and they were treated.  Since then it appears that the bleeding is under control.  However, due to the massive trauma of 3 surgeries, multiple blood transfusions and massive amounts of IV fluids given, his lungs are severely congested and inflamed. He is now severely critical and is in the cardiovascular intensive unit.  Dad is in a room typically used for heart transplant patients who are recovering from surgery.  Last night Dad was extremely critical and unstable and the medical personnel were working very hard to stabilize him.  Today he remains extremely critical although he is more stable than he was last night.  We are thankful for the efforts of the staff in the ICU and the support we have received from those surrounding us.

Specific praises (Dad calls them God sightings):
- Dad is still with us today and that he made it through a very difficult night
- Thankful for the heroic support and the kindness of the medical staff who have worked on Dad, especially last night in the ICU
- Thankful that the bleeding has been controlled by the surgery

Specific prayer requests:
- Inflammation and congestion in his lungs to improve
- For his heart rate and blood pressure to stay in a normal rhythm (as this has been an additional concern)
- The medical staff working with Dad to have wisdom and discernment
- That God's will would be done and that we would be open to see what He is doing through Dad's journey

Thanks again for journeying with us.  We cherish your prayers.

Blessings,
David (for the Harrill family)