Sugarbaker at Sutter Hospital

 Michael and I drove to Sacramento at 3:30 in the morning Wednesday. Because he'd had the laparoscopy the week before we were not as tense as we would have been had this been new terrain. The surgery he had took seven and a half hours and was very extensive--removing organs as well as cancer that the surgeon found throughout the abdomen. After that he returned to the Intensive Care Unit where he had three long days of excellent nursing care, continuous disruptions of monitors and pumps and a few little molehills of problems.

 Yesterday, while Orien was visiting he got moved out to the Oncology unit. Today he had his last intra-abdominal chemotherapy and today his intestines started to work again-- a very big deal as anyone who has had abdominal surgery knows.
Orien treated me to a night at the Marriot-- this is a fuzzy picture but I liked the color and composition of it. My dear daughter is over-whelmed with work but took the time to be with her step-dad in his time of need and to treat me to lovely meals and this luxury...

 I'm not one to ever pass up a rose. The Capitol rose garden is right by where we stayed last night. Otherwise I've been staying at a darling little house owned by my kind friends' Darien and Louis and riding my bike between the hospital and their home-- a comfortable ride that takes me right by Sacramento Natural Foods and through quiet neighborhood streets. I've been pretty much fine when I'm by Michael's side but when I go away from him I start to fret... less so now. He's really turned some invisible corner.

 He's taken all of what appendiceal cancer seems to do (the body doesn't recognize it and it goes all over the place) and what the medical establishment throws at it without a single complaint. With his usual demeanor of calm and presence he's gone forward in each moment fearlessly and without an ounce of drama. We'll be home soon and back into some more chemo and then, HOPEFULLY, on to a healthy life without recurrences.