Day 2 and looking good

It's 12:21 a.m. Saturday and I'm sorry it's so late, for those of you who have been checking this blog every hour for an update :). Steve got out of ICU this afternoon and moved into a private room. Very nice, actually with a TV, DVD player and an assortment of nurses for him to hit on.. Terri and I left him in the care of nurse Angie who promises to match him barb for barb and story for story. She'll be on all weekend and I think he'll like that.

This morning when we arrived, he was already sitting up in a chair. That's terrific at this stage. He even managed mostly by himself with just a little assistance to get from the chair back into bed. Of course, the effort exhausted him and he laid on the "green button" pretty good afterward, but still it was quite impressive.

Once he got settled in his room, Dr. Trocha, the surgeon came by and reiterated to Steve what he had told me yesterday. That the pathology on the tumor showed it to be necrotic (dead) and that the margins were all negative -- doctor-speak for we got it all. The fact that the radiation killed all the cancer cells is very important since during surgery cells slough off and it's important that those cells were dead. He did say that there would be more chemo later on, which is probably a good thing medically - to make sure no cancer can get a foothold anywhere else.

Steve continues to be Steve and very positive, despite the setback of the colostomy. Terri says he has a "devlish positive attitude." This morning he told me first thing that he had "had a talk with himself" and decided that he could and would handle this. We did have our first ostomy lesson from the special nurse today. There will be more lessons before we leave the hospital and we have to complete a "final exam" by attaching the bag before they will let us go home. Damn, such pressure!

Now that he's out of ICU, he may be able to sleep a full night - less activity, fewer machines, fewer cables and tubes. So Terri and I left him about 9:30, turned down the lights and he promised he would not sit up and watch ESPN -- or lure nurse Angie into the room on false pretenses! I hope he gets a good solid night's sleep tonight.

His sister, Gretchen, heads off to Florida tomorrow so they said their goodbyes. I know it was very important to Steve that she was here and Terri and I both enjoyed her company, her stories and her support.

Now that he's in a room, he can get phone calls, so if you want to call and talk to him it is 864-455-7000 and he's in room 3411. Wait until late morning, early afternoon though, so I can move the phone to a more accessible location. If it rang now there'd be no way for him to reach it.

Today (Saturday), I'll ask him if he thinks he'll be up for visitors - several people have asked about stopping by, which I think would be good for him. But I want to make sure he feels up to that first.

It looks like he'll probably be in the hospital until at least Tuesday. He still has a tube in his throat that has to come out before they can progress to any liquid or solid food. That's critical to seeing that the bowel is working and the bag is doing its job. So there's still several days to get through on that front. But he made a lot of progress today - and most importantly, he is unabashedly himself. He jokes, he's alert, he's holding conversations and looking forward to getting home.