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Mark was checked out of the hospital on Tuesday, but he stayed in the Seattle area until this morning. Late yesterday afternoon he had his staples removed and told he was good to go.

Doctors tell him that he'll be ok'd to start his second round of chemotherapy around the 25th of February.

Pathology reports from tissues removed show no other cancer cells. However, they removed 22 lymph nodes; all were 'clean' except for 2 that showed signs of cancer. This just confirms the importance of the second round of chemo.

Wednesday morning

Mark got to his room around 1:00 am this morning. He's doing well, awake, talking, doing just fine. His shoulder (the one that was giving him problem before) is killing him though, so they're giving him pain medication for that. Right now he has an epidural and is pretty numb from the waist down, so no pain at all from the surgery. The Dr said the goal for today is to get him up out of bed, and doesn't think they'll have any problems doing that later on.

Thank you so much for everyones thoughts, prayers, and help. We all appreciate.

surgery today

We've been waiting and waiting to know a time of the surgery today. We had been told that they would call us sometime this morning with a time of the surgery. Leslie had to call the pre-op department because she still had not heard from them.

Right now the time is 5:00 pm. There is a possibility that there will be a cancellation and they can get Mark in sooner, but for now they're planning on checking into the hospital at 3:00 and surgery at 5:00.

UPDATE: Mark's out of surgery (it's about 10:00 pm PST) and in recovery now. The Dr. said the surgery was a sucess and everything went well.

Happy New Year!

The surgery date has been set. Tuesday, January 18th will be the day of the surgery. Mark will go in early in the morning, so several family members will go over the night before with him and stay in some apartment like housing.

Today (the 4th) and the 5th Mark has all sorts of appointments with doctors, specialists and other various people within the workings of the University of Washington Hospital. Among them are his surgeon (pre-op talk/updates) and an urology specialist. Updates coming soon.........