Surgery is Done

And we came home to beautiful snow.

My husband's surgery was supposed to take 3-4 hours on Tuesday morning, but it took six.  (The last two hours felt very long indeed for me.) His tumor was deeper than anticipated, and the surgeon had a lot of work to do to get the clean, cancer-free margins that he wanted around the cancerous area. 

In spite of having three wound sites (tongue, neck, thigh) and an neck incision with a drain, he's in no pain.  I was prepared yet unprepared for his appearance after surgery: his neck scar looked so severe; it's so large. He can't speak properly and he is on a total liquid diet, but we were prepared for that.  I am so grateful that he's not in pain (yet?).  That was his greatest fear, having never had surgery before.

He has his drain removed today and we were sitting in the exam room laughing to each other when the doctor came in.  He commented on how infrequently post-op patients are laughing and took it as a good sign for quick healing.  If so, he should be healed up in no time, since we laugh all the time at our millions of little inside jokes. 

We are back at the surgeon's on Monday for more post-op work and, we hope, pathology results. 

Yesterday I played violin for an hour and walked the snowy farm for a good forty-five minutes.  My husband is drinking blended soups and having healthy smoothies.  Our children are perfectly fine.  

There's a lot to be grateful for in our valley these days.