Mother-in-law update

As you may know if you've seen my wife's journal today, my mother-in-law Louise's surgery went just wonderfully-- entire tumor taken out, preliminary biopsies suggest that it is benign, operation went more quickly than they expected, and no other problems. The doctor looked very happy. We waited in the hospital during the surgery, and then came back to Ruth's parents' house afterwards to wait for Louise to come out of the recovery room and regain consciousness.

She has now done so, and is perfectly lucid; she can identify us and our degrees of relationship to her, remember the date and estimate what time it is, complain about not being in Geneva where she had been originally supposed to be this week, and look forward to coming home and getting the bandages off. This is an inestimable relief, since a great weight was lifted when we were told she'd got through surgery and another one when we could see and talk with her. She'll be in the hospital another five to ten days, depending on degree of swelling, but barring something or other truly random and awful she should be just fine. Ruth and I will, as planned, return to Boston on Sunday. Right now we're going to go and take my father-in-law out to dinner, since today is his birthday (ouch, but he says his present is his wife staying alive).

Thank all of you for the good wishes and prayers and support you've been giving me and Ruth. It's really been helpful, and Louise appreciates it too. I don't know how much I'm going to be online until returning to Boston, because it's very slow dial-up here and we need to keep the phone lines open to give out updates, but it's times like this that I really know why they call the internet the World Wide Web.

WHEW.

Mother-in-law update

As you may know if you've seen my wife's journal today, my mother-in-law Louise's surgery went just wonderfully-- entire tumor taken out, preliminary biopsies suggest that it is benign, operation went more quickly than they expected, and no other problems. The doctor looked very happy. We waited in the hospital during the surgery, and then came back to Ruth's parents' house afterwards to wait for Louise to come out of the recovery room and regain consciousness.

She has now done so, and is perfectly lucid; she can identify us and our degrees of relationship to her, remember the date and estimate what time it is, complain about not being in Geneva where she had been originally supposed to be this week, and look forward to coming home and getting the bandages off. This is an inestimable relief, since a great weight was lifted when we were told she'd got through surgery and another one when we could see and talk with her. She'll be in the hospital another five to ten days, depending on degree of swelling, but barring something or other truly random and awful she should be just fine. Ruth and I will, as planned, return to Boston on Sunday. Right now we're going to go and take my father-in-law out to dinner, since today is his birthday (ouch, but he says his present is his wife staying alive).

Thank all of you for the good wishes and prayers and support you've been giving me and Ruth. It's really been helpful, and Louise appreciates it too. I don't know how much I'm going to be online until returning to Boston, because it's very slow dial-up here and we need to keep the phone lines open to give out updates, but it's times like this that I really know why they call the internet the World Wide Web.

WHEW.