Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

She had a pretty rough night last night. The pain in her back was pretty significant and she couldn"t pump those pain killers in fast enough. It seems the hospital has this thing about people OD'ing so they only let you get a dose once every 10 minutes by pushing the button. Of course, that doesn"t mean you can't push the button 10 or 20 times every 10 minutes in the hope of receiving a bonus dose.

And if the pain wasn't bad enough, about 4:30 she began having a lot of difficulty breathing. They began to be concerned that the pneumothorax wasn't improving so they got out the old scalpel and were preparing to cut a hole in her side to stick a tube into her lung to prevent it from collapsing. Well that prospect didn't have much of a calming effect on her breathing. Fortunately before any of that happened they took another x-ray and decided that the pneumothorax was improving and they held off. Come to find out, the whole punctured lung thing was unnecessary since the assistant surgeon said that the second central line near her collar bone was done by the anesthiologist without the surgeon's knowledge and against the surgeons' wishes. Sounded like somebody got a good chewing out.

OK. That's the weeping endureth for a night part. The joy cometh in the morning part started about 8:30 am. About 30 minutes after receiving a shot of Toradol for pain and Benadryl for a rash that she usually seems to get after anesthesia, she suddenly said "I can breathe. It's not so hard anymore.". After about 4 hours of struggling to breathe and worrying about them having to cut you and poke a tube in your lung, that was indeed good news. Next, the surgical team came in again and provided another very positive report. They looked all around while they had her open and said again that the tumor they removed showed no signs of being attached to any other organ. The liver, spleen, ovaries, uterus, and rest of the colon and intestines all looked good. The lymph nodes they took out also looked normal. We still have to wait for the pathology results but it was joyful news after a night of weeping. The doctors seemed cautiously confident and very reassuring and that made us both feel very good.

Other joys since the sun came up include the removal of the NG tube, oxygen mask and catheter, and also that she stood up and walked to the chair in the room. Later on she intends to walk in the hall.

This now concludes my first post done entirely on a Blackberry. (Yes,the Blackberry issue was resolved. I'd rather not say how.). I don't think I'll ever become a Crackberry addict like some people I know who will remain nameless, but it is nice to be able to stay in touch with friends and family and read the many words of encouragement and support. And a belated Happy New Year to all.