8:30 Post-Surgery Update for Joey Keller - Monday, Nov. 29th, 2010

Hello everyone,

I just got off the phone with my mom (Jo) and she was excited to give me the evening update. Joey ended up going into surgery at 4:30 pm today and came out around 6:30. The surgery went well and the Doctors seem to be pleased. They have already done another Cat Scan tonight to check on the shunt and make sure everything is looking okay.

They hope to remove the catheter tomorrow, which would be a good thing. The plan is to continue Radiation on the spine as soon as possible in order to keep attacking the tumors on his spine as aggressively as possible.

At this point, they will not be starting Chemotherapy for a few weeks in order for his body to heal from the head wounds from the 2 surgeries. At this point Joey as 3 incisions that we need to believe to heal quickly; 2 on his head and 1 on his abdomen from today.

When the Doctors came in this evening they said that it looked like the surgeries both went very well and they were pleased with the way things looked during the surgery today. After one of the doctors thoroughly examined Joey tonight, I guess he turned to Nick and Elizabeth and said, "He looks really good!" This is great news everybody! We believe in the power of prayer! It's working! Let's keep praying!

The Goal for Tomorrow is to get him out of bed and moving to keep his muscles from atrophying and to get him to eat as many calories as he possibly can. We need to pray that Joey's appetite will come back and that he will regain his strength in his muscles.

Nick and Elizabeth stayed last night with Joey in the room which was a good thing for the 3 of them as a family unti to be together, especially before his surgery today.

Nick and Elizabeth continue to be so thankful for the tremendous outpouring of love from all of you through your comments, prayers and encouragements. They can definitely feel it.

We'll continue to keep all of you posted as to Joey's progress tomorrow.

Thank you for caring and carrying this with us,

Matt Keller