I left the hospital at 11:15 PM.  Surgery was delayed for several hours due to an emergency.  Dan was scheduled for surgery at 12:30 PM, but they did not take him until 3 PM.  I was given a pager and started the long wait. Waiting is not one of my stong points.

At 3:50 PM I was given an update that they started the robotic operation.  At 5:30 PM an update came in from the Doctor that “it was in the bag”….meaning that they removed the prostate???  After that, I didn’t get anymore updates until 8 PM when the Dr. came out himself to talk to me. He said it went as planned, but took all of 4 hours.  He was a very nice Doctor…. even asked me if I had dinner.

By 9:30 PM, I was still waiting. Actually, by now, I was the ONLY person in the waiting room. I decided to pick up a phone on the reception desk (all workers were now gone) and behold, a voice at the other end said “recovery”.  I told them that I was Dan’s sister and was still waiting. They told me to come back.  I made my way through a few double doors and then I spotted my brother.  Well, he sort of looked like my brother. They had to invert the table when operating, so his face was now swollen. He was awake, asking for a rib eye steak and water. He reminded all of us every 15 seconds or so that he had not eaten for over 50 hours now! He also told us “cancer sucks!” The nurses were great and Dan kept up his humor..even though he was clearly in a lot of pain.  He reminded me of our Dad…always joking around. It was another hour before he got up to his room. His nurse in the room gave him the morphine pump and told him to use it!!!  I left him there at 11:15 PM and drove back to his house. I’ll return in the mid morning. He is expected to come home tomorrow afternoon.  I expect Dan will continue his blog this evening.