Boston

Lee here, Nick's Step Dad...Nick is a stud. Lori and Nick were up at 5:30 this morning after a mostly sleepless night to be at the hospital at 6:30. Unfortunately, they ended up waiting because there weren't any beds in Intensive Care. The hospital was even considering postponing surgery! Bummer. Finally about 9 a.m. they came to take him away. That was o.k. with me because I just arrived from the airport and I was very happy to give him some bones before he kissed his mom. The last view of him as they rolled him off to surgery was with a big smile, a determined look and a "bring it on" attitude.

I have to say that everyone affiliated with the hospital has been exceptional- the doctors, nurses and staff. They keep it pleasant and are very professional. About every 90 minutes they would give us an update. The actual surgery began at 10:15 a.m. and every report was positive. They made an incision from the center of his upper lip up to the nose and then around the right side of his nose up to his eye then along the lower eyelid to the corner of his eye. The optometrist stopped by to let us know that his eye was just fine and she had inserted a small stint (tube) into his right tear duct that drains into his sinus to keep that area clear while it heals. I am sure Nick will be excited when they take it out in about six months.

Five hours to the minute, the surgeon, Dr. Rahbar, shows up to give us his report. I have to say he appeared to be very cautiosly optimistic. He said they took out a bunch of dead gunk and they actually created some windows through the cheek bone so they could clean things out and gather some tissue for biopsies. He also scraped several of the bones to get bone samples for biopsy as well. He said that because of the cancer and/or the radiation there was significant deterioration. The good news was that every thing was consistent. There were no particular areas that differed from other areas. He did say that could be really good or really bad. But, both Lori and I felt that he considered that a very good sign.

He actually remarked that Nick was a good healer and he felt he could be released perhaps as early as this coming Saturday- at least 3-4 days sooner than predicted. He would like to have a post-op on Tuesday and assuming Lori can win the battle with Delta Airlines, and Nick feels up to it, they could actually come home the middle of next week.

Of course we are anxious to see the lab results, but we will probably have to wait at least 7-10 days for the results. Keep your fingeres crossed. When we finally got to see Nick- we certainly expected to see more outside damage. Actually, we were surprised to see how good Nick looks. He was quite groggy- but quickly recovered and they sent him directly to a room without even having to go to ICU. (They had told us earlier he would be in ICU over night).

We knew Nick was coming around when he suddenly asked, "What happened to my underwear? I know I had underwear on when I went into surgery- so who took them off?"

It is obvious to all of us that the power of prayer and positive intentions continues to play a very influential role in Nick's progress. His positive attitude his amplified from the love and support of so many of you. We all feel the strength that comes from literally hundereds of prayers offered in his behalf. For that we are enormously and forever grateful.

Lori is here now and I am sure has some good words and photos to post.

Good night!
Nick - at our pre-op appointment - 6:30 a.m. EASTERN time!


















The "rock star" meds are starting to kick in...



















4 hours after surgery...


















Nothing much more to add except to thank Lee for being here with us. What a day! What a great kid Nick is!
With love,
Lori