Robert is out of surgery and is in recovery. It will be about 2 hours before we get to see him yet.
The mass on Robert was cancerous and he will have to take Chemo and Radiation. For right now they will keep him here until they feel he is healthy enough to leave. It should be between 5-14 days. They will then come home for recovery. In about 6 weeks they will come back to Rochester. At that point they will discuss what we need to do for Chemo and Radiation. The doctor did tell us this is as good as it gets as far as pancreatic cancer goes. Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers. There is nothing like the power of prayer. Please keep them coming!

They just came in and informed us that they are sewing him up. As soon as the doctor is done he will come in to visit with the family! Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers!

If you would like to know about the procedure they are doing go back to older posts and go to the Wipple Procedure on 8/22/08, that tells in detail what they are doing with the re-routing. It also has a couple of pictures.

They have taken the mass out and they are beginning to put him back together! They have to re- plumb the pancreas then they can sew him up. They were able to do it all by laproscopy which means that his recovery will be faster. After they are done with the surgery it will be 2hours in recovery before we are able to see him. As soon as we hear more we will let you know!

The nurse just came in and gave us an update. Everything is going well and as planned. They were able to do it through laproscopy which is good. Every two hours she will come in and give us another update. Keep all the prayers coming!

The address for Robert is:

Mayo Clinic
Saint Marys Hospital
Patient Care Unit- Francis 1C
% Robert Berning Room 121
1216 Second Street SW
Rochester, Minnesota 55902

Good morning. They took Robert to pre-op at 7:10 am. The surgery is scheduled for at 8:15am. It should take around 6 hours for the surgery. As soon as we know something we will let you know. No news is good news. Papa was in really good spirits this morning. Keep all the prayers coming! Love- Roxie, Rod, Robbie, Renissa & Ryan

Everyone has made it safely to Rochester! Renissa and Ryan made it in about an hour after we did. Robert has to be at the hospital at 5:45 am and his surgery is scheduled for 8:15 am. Keep us in your prayers! We will keep you updated as soon as we know something.

Thanks from all the family for all the thoughts and prayers!

Good Evening to everyone. We left Kansas this morning at around 9 am. Thanks to Robbie's garman or gar-woman (haha we all know it has to be a woman because a man would never stop and ask for directions!) we made it to Omaha, NE at around 6pm, the trip was pleasant. Everything seems to be greener the further you get from Kansas. Ryan and Renissa will be leaving Augusta in the morning to meet up with us. We will leave in the morning and head on into Rochester, it should be about 380 miles. Tomorrow night Roxie will call the hospital and get the instructions for Robert and we will check him in Monday morning. Thanks to everyone for all your thoughts and prayers they are greatly appreciated, keep them coming we all need them at this time. The family loves to read all the comments so keep them coming too.

Happy Labor to everyone. I hope that everyone is enjoying a much needed day off. Just thought I would let everyone know that things are going good. Robert was running a fever on Friday and had to be put in to the hospital over night to get re-hydrated. They also put him on antibiotics. He got to go back home on Saturday. He seems to be doing better. Ryan, Melissa, Tenley, Talen, Renissa, Darren, Nolan and Camrea got to come home for the weekend! It was a nice weekend with all of the family home. We all spent Saturday at Robert and Roxie's then on Sunday Robbie barbecued on his traegger grill and brought chicken, ribs and brisket out to Grammie's for lunch it was really good, then Sunday night we came out to our house for supper, the plan was to go fishing but unfortunately the wind did not corporate. A big thanks to Grammie's boss (RT) for having Webb's B-Bque cater food for us. With all the kids and grand kids there are a lot of mouths to feed! Grammie is still trying to take care of everyone but we at least tried to get her to rest a while. Thanks to everyone for all your thoughts, prayers and comments!