Great news - everything went well with Mark's surgery yesterday. Actually, in the words of the doctor, the surgery was "perfect." There were no surprises, which was a huge relief. I think all of the work done ahead of time really paid off.

He stayed in a Procedural Short Stay Unit rather than a "real" hospital room overnight. It was a bit of a challenge every time the nurses came in and asked, "Are you having any pain? Numbness? Tingling?" Rather than go through the whole backstory each time, he finally got to the point where he would respond, "Yes, all of that. But I had it all before so it's not alarming and it doesn't mean anything went wrong."

When I got back up there this morning, Mark had already met with the doctor again and the physical therapist. Once he met with the occupational therapist and hospitalist, we went through the discharge paperwork and I got to bring him home. The girls were so excited to see him after school today - they even made a sign for him to see as he came in through the garage. 

He's still pretty sore, but overall he's feeling pretty decent. He'll wear the neck collar for another couple weeks, and he has some restrictions (like no driving) for a while. We'll meet again with his doctor on September 15 for a check-in and to prepare for the October surgery. Only time will tell what improvements he'll see. He's already able to open and close his right hand (the "claw hand") a little more than he'd been able to previously so that's a good sign. Hopefully we'll continue to notice more of these things as time goes on.

As we were coming home, we were both sort of shaking our heads in disbelief saying, "So this is what it feels like to have a surgery go as planned..." What a great feeling - we'll take this non-eventful stuff anytime!