Well rested after getting home.

Man! It felt so good to be back in my own bed last night! I slept like a baby.

So...here we go with the "action" stuff.

Wednesday I go in for a left hepatectomy. What that means is they're going to take about 40% of my liver out. Some weight loss plan huh? The surgery will take about three to five hours to complete with about three to four hours recovery time. I may or may not end up in the I.C.U. following the surgery. That all depends on how well things go. Dr. Visser, my surgeon, feels confident that everything will go quite nicely. He did, however, point out that "things" can happen while they are in there. Stanford takes a very conservative approach to care and recovery, airing on the side of caution. So, if I wake up and hear the bells and whistles of I.C.U., I don't need to freak out.

I'll be spending five to seven days in the hospital. I get my first day off after surgery. Thursday, the real fun starts as I begin attempting to move from my bed to my chair. Friday might bring walks down the hall and even maybe some food!

I'm making light of this, but it's going to be a really hard haul this time. This is major stuff, but I'm confident that I have what it takes mentally and physically to make a rapid and good recovery.

After I return home, I will have home recovery of about five to six weeks during which time my liver will begin to regenerate. The liver will not take on it's old familiar shape, but will "poof" out returning to the same volume it was prior to the surgery.

Every three months or so, I will return for another CT scan to make sure I don't have more cancer again. That will continue until the folks at Stanford get sick of seeing me ;-). Then I'll be marked as a "free man" so to speak.

The hospital is both cell phone and computer friendly. So, I'll be able to post while I'm there to tell you how much fun I'm having!