William Garner

On Friday, July 17 William was sent to the ER from Urgent care for what was thought to be appendicitis. After exam it was determined that he did not have appendicitis, but a CT scan revealed he seemed to have a large mass covering his left kidney. After further CT’s, MRI’s, tests and visits to specialists it was confirmed that the mass is aggressive kidney cancer that has spread into his left renal vein down to his legs and into the inferior vena cava (IVC) to his heart. Surgery was recommended as the only option of treatment and now after waiting many weeks (a few added on because of covid) the day has arrived. 

William will be heading to Emory University Hospital tomorrow morning, Sept 14, arriving at 5:30 am for a 7:30 am procedure.  The surgery will be approximately 8 hours in length and will entail the special skills of 2 surgical teams. The Vascular team will go first to remove the cancer from the IVC and when that is complete the Kidney team will take over to remove the mass/kidney and lymph nodes. William is expected to be in the hospital for 7-10 days for recovery. The prognosis is good with doctors telling him that they expect to get all the cancer through surgery and that there should be no need for chemo or radiation afterwards.

He and his family covet your prayers as he faces this day and the days to come in recovery. We ask you to pray for healing and that all the cancer is removed and no surprises.  Please pray for our Mom as she waits for word on her “baby.” We will not be allowed to visit him during his hospital stay so communication will be done by telephone from those caring for him to us. Please pray for the surgical teams, nurses and techs who will be caring for him during his stay in the hospital. We ask that you pray for wisdom, skill, guidance and compassion and their health as well.

For anyone interested we have set up a GoFundMe account to help William out with medical expenses. Any amount is so gratefully appreciated. Most of all though we do appreciate and covet your prayers. We will be posting updates on his surgery and recovery as we have news to share. Thank you all so much and through this we still say To God Be the Glory!