As some of you know, our doctors told us years ago that one day, Dieubon would need surgery for his spina bifida. He has had back pain, and loss of bladder control for years. The following is what his surgery will involve: Dieubon’s surgery will begin at 5:30 AM tomorrow and should take from four to six hours. It is major surgery as they will open his back and remove one deformed vertebrae, resection the rest and fuse them together with rods and screws. He will be able to regain nearly the same movement and flexibility he has now, but will have more strength and eliminate risks of damaging his spinal cord if the spine would have failed. After the surgery, there will be no risk of spine failure that could have resulted in paralysis. Repairing his spine will relieve the problems on his spinal cord and will relieve the pain and nerve involvement that cause the lack of bladder and bowel control. During the operation, the medical team will wake him out of anesthesia a few times to make sure there is no spinal cord nerve damage. He’ll have to respond to commands to move this or that so they can be sure no nerves are being hurt. Dieubon will probably stay in the hospital for about a week, and then he will have eight weeks of rehabilitation, before he is released from medial care. This is a major surgery, and we need all of our partners praying for Dieubon. God bless you, Sherry