Shallow Hal

Other than the massive swelling, recovery has been pretty swell.

The doctor is pleased with the surgery results and life at home has been pretty blase. At least for me, but then again, I don't play Black Ops.

Smiles

Well, Mark no longer has to watch Sweet Home Alabama and Maid in Manhattan at the hospital anymore because HE IS HOME!!

The physical therapists told him that they would be there around 10am yesterday, so when they showed up around 4pm, he was not in the happiest of moods. But for all that is good and holy, he was able to walk! And go home! Now, I wasn't there to witness all of this (because I am an important corporate woman) but I guess when he and his parents drove up to the apartment, it started hailing. Well Mark would not sit in the car for one more minute and walked up our 6 stairs with a cane in the Chicago wind and hail!

So, what happened in the surgery? 12 lymph nodes were removed plus a muscle in his inner thigh where most of the nodes lived. Then, a separate muscle attached to his hip was moved to cover the area that the other muscle was, so that his femoral artery was not exposed. So basically, he has a muscle in a different spot than it was before, and 12 lymph nodes went bye bye. He has a couple of drains in his leg to decrease the swelling, and cannot do anything with his leg that will use the new muscle. ALTHOUGH, I nosely stumbled upon the papers they gave him when he was released, and it gave him a list of things he could do:

Eating - Yes
Showering - Yes
Walking - Yes
Stairs - Yes

Also on the list were:
Shopping - Yes (THANK GOD)
Cleaning/Laundry - Yes!!!!

I made sure to mention something about that to which Mark said "that means I can have someone else DO my laundry."

Oh, did I mention that the biopsy came back from the lymph nodes and there were NO CANCER CELLS IN THEM????????????

Northwestern

Hi All,

Mark will be in the hospital until Thursday night-ish. I've been getting a few questions asking where he is. He's at Northwestern in room 1209.

He's pretty drugged up, but still cracking jokes!

6:26

Mark is out of surgery and we are waiting on him to get out of recovery and into his hospital room. Sounds like the surgery went well though! Wake up Mark!!!

#21

Looky there at patient number 21. That's our boy.

Lynn, Deb and I all took turns hugging and kissing MM before he went in. When it was my turn in the room with him, the nurse asked what my relationship was to Mark to which I answered "hot girlfriend." It's always best to make medical professionals feel as uncomfortable as possible. The same nurse asked Mark if he needed anything before the surgery and he said "McDonalds?" Sooooo the spirits are high here people!!

I'll give another update once I know more!! MWAH!