Yesterday...what a day

Rock Church, originally uploaded by Michael Shattuck.

The image you're looking at was taken at a lightning/fire-damaged church (The "Rock Church") in downtown St. Louis. My uncle, an architect with the firm handling the plans for the rebuild/restoration, took me down there yesterday to check out the damage and to take some pictures around the interior. It was incredibly beautiful, yet sad that we had the chance to take the photos only because it had been devastated by the fire...as well as by the process of putting said fire out.
This particular image is really interesting (at least to me). Turning that wheel would result in some windows opening up at the top of the "chapel" (don't know the correct word there)...a little "climate control" action.

There are several other images you can check out on my flickr feed if you're interested. Here's the link.

After getting home from our morning "photo shoot" I got a call from a nearby hospital and received news that my dad had been admitted into the ER. It turns out that he hadn't been feeling good for several days and that he'd had some terrible headaches. After some testing, they found that he had two cancer-like masses: one in his left lung and the other in a very dangerous area of his brain. The brain mass was putting pressure on his spinal column and causing spinal fluid to backup in his brain...causing his drowsiness, dizziness, and headaches. The short story was that without surgery he would die rather quickly.

So, we headed off to the hospital and stayed with him for several hours, waiting through the surgery, and then waiting awhile with him in the ICU. They told us that they were able to successfully remove the mass in his brain, thus relieving the pressure. He's doing very well this morning...waiting for the surgeon to make his rounds and give more information on the future.

The big question mark is the other mass in his lungs. He's a long-time smoker (40+ years) and the doctors are fairly certain that its lung cancer. The pathology report on the mass removed from his brain, along with the results of an impending biopsy on the lung, will tell us for sure what we're dealing with and give a better idea as to a prognosis.

Pretty surreal. I'm not really avoiding dealing with this new reality...I think I'm just waiting until we have 100% of the information we can get from the doctors/surgeons involved. We're so glad we've gotten back home so that we can go through this with him. I can't imagine getting this news in Poland, knowing that I wouldn't be able to be there.

Such a contrasting day yesterday. Great morning behind the camera...creative juices pumping. Awful, surreal night in an ICU waiting room, hoping that my dad pulls through a serious brain operation.

This is a pretty long post here...but as I've said before, it helps me process everything by writing. Pray for my dad, Tom, as he deals with the new revelation (he only found out yesterday morning). Pray that he draw near to the Lord for the support he needs.