Saturday at noon

Can you imagine? The Stanford Hospital Cafeteria's coffee bar is closed on Saturday and Sunday. The Cafe is open, they just close the coffee bar. This really hurts! No double decaf non-fat largest cup latte for me today! I ordered this in a local coffee bar in Napa one time and this sweet young thing with an edge to her looked me square in the eyes and said, "Sir, up here we call that a 'why bother'."

On a more serious note, I may not have communicated correctly Mary's situation because I was so relieved and excited that she was awake and alert again.

I said a couple of days ago that Mary had slipped out of the woods and into the deep jungle. Thankfully, the renal docs knew where she was (SIADH) and they are now bringing her back to the woods in a slow and steady manner to avoid damage that can be caused by too fast a return. As for the woods she is in, it is a known and mapped area now. The liver metrics are all good and the surgeon is very pleased with her progress. However, we are still in major risk territory. That little slice of liver must keep regenerating and growing while it is working to keep our girl alive. It is nominal for 5 days after surgery but it takes another 5 to 7 weeks to declare success in Step 2 of this journey.

She will be in ICU today per Dr Visser's orders. They will make a decision tomorrow about returning her to a regular room.

They have removed the epidural probe as of last night. Mary's veins in her arms are so small and hard to find that they have put the IV in the neck--main line, I think they called it.

As of 11AM, she is back on self administred fentanyl but much lower dose than before. Mary has said her pain is between 6 and 8 on a scale of 10.

I have talked to the ICU and the neurological teams of doctors this morning. They are all pleased with the current recovery and very cautious about what may happen next.