We're on our way home?

Good morning, devoted readers!

After what we assume was a successful surgery yesterday, the doctor who came in to do rounds this morning said "I have to talk to [Dr. Song], but I don't see why you can't go home today."'

But I get ahead of myself.

Just a quick recap of yesterday:

• We came to the hospital at 10 a.m. to do bloodwork. The platelets were even lower than before. 😐
• Katie, our awesome nurse practitioner, ordered some more tests to be done on his bloodwork so that when Vic sees the hematologist next week, they'll already have some of the tests they need to start figuring out why his platelets are low,
• We went up to surgery check-in around 11, where we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. They finally called us back around 4, where we found out that Dr. Song didn't really want to do too much surgery because of the low platelet issue. This was the most devastating part of the day, because we really wanted him to do as much as possible in one day, but ...
• ... it ended up being OK, because the surgery Dr. Song did do went really well. He took off all the visible cancer and sutured him up. No skin grafts, no neck surgery, etc., which means ...
• ... easier recovery, which means ...
• ... he may get to go home today! (More on that later.)

Vic is glad to have the cancer out, and even though it may not be all out (we'll know in about a week), the majority is out, and that's a relief. He was also quite concerned about his swallowing and his speech, but both are great. He sounds a LITTLE drunk (hee hee), but that will get better as he recovers.

This morning, Dr. Gonzalez came in (he works hand-in-hand with Dr. Song) with a bunch of fresh-faced medical students for rounds. Here's the recap of that:

• He looked at Vic's tongue, said it looked great. No bleeding, which is really great, given the low platelets.
• He repeated what Dr. Song said, which was that they took an area of the tongue that he thought would provide clear margins. (Dr. Song's concern was that he definitely went wide enough but wasn't sure he went deep enough, but the pathology would show that.)
• He said if it the margins were clear, maybe Vic would be done with the surgery. (Dr. Song also said that--maybe he won't even need to have the lymph nodes out.)
• He said the platelets were up to 97 after yesterday's infusion. This is excellent. (But we'll still need to find out why the platelets are so low.)
• He said that Vic's speech was fantastic, given that he'd just had surgery on his tongue, and he was swallowing just fine.
• The last thing he said was "I have to talk to the boss [Dr. Song], but I don't see any reason you can't go home today." This was very unexpected. Dr. Song said yesterday that Vic would only have to be in the hospital a day or two, but we expected "two." Vic is over the moon--so I sure hope Dr. Song agrees! It's almost worse to find out that you might be able to go home and then have to wait all day to find out. But still, HOME!!!

Next steps:

• Follow-up with Dr. Song's office--probably next week.
• Find out the results of the pathology--probably next week.
• Get an appointment with a hematologist to take care of that pesky platelet problem--probably next week. (I, too, was a little excited with the "go home" news that I forgot to ask about all of this. BUT I have now written it down, and rest assured that we will not leave the hospital until we know what the plan is.)

Now, let's see, what pictures do I have for you today?

This is post-surgery with the ladies in the PACU:

And this is us in pre-op, me with my Game of Thrones sign: What do we say to the god of death? Not today. That made a few people laugh, and the nurse even asked if he could keep the sign in their area. (I put this second so that a new picture would pop up on Facebook, hahaha.)

They want you to get up and around, so here's Vic walking the runway and also being silly:

(NOTE: He is only pretending to speak gibberish at the end.)

[begin really super mushy part]

Each and every one of you--whether you are a Facebook/blog "lurker" or someone who posts a comment or someone who clicks "like" or "love" or someone who texts or emails or someone who sends vibes, thoughts, energy, prayers and the like or someone who weeds or plants flowers or sends treats or offers any kind of help we might need--has lifted me up these past few weeks. You have enabled me to be positive and strong and resilient. You have been there for me so I could be there for Vic. You have been my cheerleaders, my shoulders, my rocks. My friends and my family, the people I love most in the world. I cherish you all.

[end really super mushy part]