dad's midget disease

i just found out my dad needs brain surgery. if you could keep him in your thoughts and prayers, that would be great. we're not sure when the surgery will be (it has to be in iowa city, no neurosurgeon in dubuque!), but i'll keep you all updated.
strangely, this is dad's second brain surgery. while mom was pregnant with me, he was knocked out at work while chasing someone through backyards. the jury's still out whether he was hit on the head or whether he ran into a clothesline. :) but he had persistent headaches and eventually they found a large blood clot.
now, he has an arachnoid cyst. you don't know what that is? me either. i'm beginning to think i should have gone to medical instead of law school just to understand what's going on with everyone in my family! from what i do know, strangely, from watching little people, big world, is that it is a cyst full of some stuff in his brain. they need to install a shunt to move the stuff from his brain to his stomach. the midget kid in little people, big world had to have his redone because if the stuff doesn't end up in the right place, it makes you feel yucky. apparently, my dad's problem is very common in midgets.
i think it's named arachnoid because it looks like a spider? the doctors would probably laugh at me for saying that.
the cyst is putting pressure on his brain (which i think explains a lot about my father!) and has been giving him headaches. they thought they could just ignore it, but he had an MRI today and turns out they can't. it's pretty big. i have no idea what that means either.
so, iowa city is going to call him in about a week (it's not an emergency). then they go for the consultation, and then i'm sure we'll all treck to iowa city for another fun wait in the hospital while my mom or dad or other family member has some surgery.
hopefully it won't be a big deal (as small of a deal as brain surgery can be), but it would still be great if you could all put in a few extra prayers!