Perfectly!

That's how Michael's doctor described how the surgery went today. What a relief!

During admission we met the anesthesiologist and the surgical nurses, and his oncologist came in to tell us what to expect. Every one of them was just wonderful to Michael. It's obvious that UCLA is a teaching hospital as many of the people on the team were very young and were being supervised by the more experienced doctors and nurses, but that didn't bother us. I think you have got to be the cream of the crop if you get an internship or residency at a hospital like UCLA.

Getting the IV in was a challenge, and the junior anesthesiologist ended up doing that instead of the nurse. Michael was pretty uncomfortable during all that, and I had to tell him that it would probably be the most uncomfortable part of his entire day today. That's the way it's been for me in the recent past.

Michael's mom and I spent the afternoon in the waiting room.

Around 3 o'clock we receive a phone call from one of the surgical nurses, and she let us know that there was some question as to whether or not they would be able to finish the procedure laparoscopically. But by 4 o'clock, Dr. P came down to the waiting room to tell us that everything was done, and that the procedure had been completed laparoscopically. In fact, he said a couple of times that everything had gone "perfectly". There was very little blood loss, and just a few small incisions to get the job done. He told us that there's a possibility that Michael will be able to go home tomorrow night, or Friday morning.

Michael was in recovery for quite a while, and we didn't get to see him until about 7 o'clock this evening. He looks really good. He's lost his voice due to the intibation, but that should improve in a day or two. At one point he complained of the pain to the nurse, and said it was a 7 out of 10 on the pain scale. That earned him a dose of vicodin. His nurse tonight is a young Filipino man, and when my mother-in-law spoke to him in Tagalog he assured her that he would take good care of Michael overnight.

We'll head back to the hospital early in hopes of being there when Dr. P comes by during rounds in the morning.

Thank you for all your messages of encouragement and love. Thank you for praying for us.

I intend to post again tomorrow.