Whew!

From Tuesday evening, 6 pm:
I just met with Dr. Polascik after he finished Charlie's surgery. The words of one of the surgical assistants pretty much agree with the doctor's summary, "The patient did well." Kathy Lewis was with me in the postop consultation room, and after Dr. Polascik left she said, "He's a man of few words." But I was very encouraged with the few words he did speak.

To cut to the chase, he feels he was able to fully remove all the cancer. He liked what he saw in dissecting the pelvic lymph nodes, and to his very experienced eye they looked clear. The one concernwas a part of the bladder that "didn't feel right". To handle that concern, he took off that small section of bladder, and then it felt normal. This is exactly the kind of potential scenario that made us opt for an open surgical technique rather than robotic surgery. A robot could not have "felt" that abnormal tissue and taken care of it. One more example of how God has divinely led us every step of the way on this unwelcome journey.

As of morning time on Wednesday:
Kathy spent the night with me at our sweet friends' home last night, and we sniggled our way through moderate traffic to get back to the hospital this morning. Patrick Shealy had been with us in the Surgery Waiting Area yesterday, and he too spent the night nearby. He was here to greet Charlie this morning and had gone before we arrived, but we are so appreciative of him taking the time away from family and other duties in Greenville to come and be a loving support for all of us here.

The nurses have already had Charlie up on his feet to make the few steps from bed to recliner, and he is peacefully snoozing there as I type. Those were a tough couple of steps. But so far, pain seems pretty much under control. Dr. Polascik will be coming to make his rounds sometime later this morning, so I will be glad to hear any more details about what he found at surgery and his opinion of the expectations for recovery going forward.

I apologize for the lapses in communication yesterday. I tried to post last night from the waiting room, but apparently something failed in transmission and the entry did not actually arrive at its intended destination.

For community group members, if you did not get any updates via text message yesterday, I apologize. I sent to everyone I had mobile numbers for in my phone. If you did not hear from me and would like to if I text any updates today, please send a text or email with your number.

Thank you EVERYONE for the beautiful messages you sent yesterday. It was a long day of waiting, but there was never a moment of feeling alone or that any need was going unmet. You are each one a special blessing to our family.