So, to put things all in one place, things went well yesterday.

The surgery was very late getting started (scheduled 11:30, started ~2:30), and only two visitors were allowed in the surgery prep area at a time, so my brother and I took turns, while Michael sat in the waiting room reading this books, playing with his phone, and after we switched to the main waiting room, playing on my Netbook.

An hour before surgery they gave him an antibiotic, as well as something to “relax” him. For my mom, I used my phone to take video of Dad unable to operate a newspaper.

While he was in surgery we all took turns with the netbook (Erin, my mom thinks Lana is adorable), I read some of the magazines I brought, and we ate lots of string cheese and clementines (Clementines! Yum!).

He came through the surgery fine–in fact, once we finally got to see him in recovery, he was more coherent than he’d been after the relaxant.

The doctor was able to do most of the surgery laproscopicly, but had to make an incision to remove the tumor–he said the tumor was about the size of his fist (and he had a large fist). The tumor had apparently been growing for several years, and was embedded in a portion of Dad’s small intestines, so they also removed about a foot of small intestines.

To doctor believes he was able to remove the tumor without harming or damaging the structures around the tumor (excluding of course the removal of part of the small intestines), so the only concern is to make sure that the small intestines were completely closed and aren’t leaking–we should know within five to six days if that happened.

There is a chance the tumor might come back, but it would again take years and years to grow, so it’s not really a concern.

The important thing is that this tumor is not cancerous, so there is no chance of it spreading, although it could return. The surgery went well, and although it will take several days for his bowels to wake up and get moving again, all is well, and we are extremely relieved.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and good will. It’s nice to be able to spread the worry.