Pray for Autumn

I have a new prayer request to post about a friend's daughter. I'll try to update as often as I can! Autumn is 4 years old, and about 3 weeks ago she started having headaches, and some nausea when eating. This progressed to vomiting when she would eat, and her headaches got worse. Her pediatrician said it's just a virus...no big deal. She was put on IV fluids once because of dehydration. Well, her symptoms kept getting worse, so last Friday we convinced her mom to take her to the ER at TC Thompson Children's hospital here in Chattanooga. She did. They ran a few tests and did a CT scan of her brain. The doctors then came in to tell her parents, "Your daughter has a brain tumor about the size of a golf ball. She has a lot of swelling on her brain."

Wham! Just like that their lives are in utter chaos. Later that evening Autumn went into surgery for shunt placement to drain some of the fluid from her brain. She did really well with that surgery, and is now playing some and able to eat a little again. On Sunday, Autumn was transferred to Vanderbilt Children's hospital. Today they did a spinal tap to see just how aggressive her cancer may be. On Thursday they're planning to do a biopsy and make a game plan for treatment. They have determined that her tumor is on her hypothalamus and that it is vascularized (typically, vascularization is not a good thing). Please say a prayer for the doctors that are treating Autumn at Vanderbilt. Pray for her mom, dad and 2 brothers (and the rest of their family as well) as they try to deal with this situation they've been thrown into.

At work, we really believe that God is going to do something wonderful through this whole situation. I pray that we're right. Something like this really makes you stop and think...why am I so upset that I can't lose 5 pounds? Does it really matter that we don't have a house yet? Does it really make any sense at all to gripe because I have to work 30 minutes late today? It so doesn't matter. Not in the grand scheme of things. I just really hate that God has to slap me in the face so hard sometimes to make me stop griping and complaining.