Today was a much better day.

 Dearest Friends and Family,

Today was a much better day.  Dad recovered quickly from the surgery, and got moved down to a regular room from the ICU in the early afternoon.  He had a headache today, not surprisingly, but that should not last long. He was pretty zippy and more like his usual self, telling stories and cracking jokes and chatting up the hospital staff.  Ozzie and Harry got to come visit and give daddy some love.

Main thing we want to share today is that we are still in a floating/waiting place without a firm prognosis.  There is a bizarre Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde aspect to the communication style of our neurosurgeon, who was Doom and Gloom right after the surgery but much more skeptical, open and positive this morning (kind of a sexist dickwad to be honest, but he's a good surgeon so we'll let it slide and move on).  Bottom line is we won't know until probably Monday at the earliest the specifics of what we are dealing with here, because we don't have the full pathology report yet (biopsy results from surgery).  Rest assured we will let you all know as soon as possible when we find out, hopefully early next week.  

Thanks especially for all the well wishes, prayers, and cards/messages.  Dad wants them all read aloud to him, and we got through a big portion of them already. I want to especially thank Rev. Steve Schneider for his support and presence at the hospital the last couple days, including pre- and post-operative prayers with dad and family.  We are a strong, tight, loving family and will get through this, in no small part thanks to all the love and prayers and white light streaming down on us from all you good people.  Many blessings, indeed.

Mark