Update June 6, 2010

Happy Sunday 2 all,
Well, Praise God! Neil (dad) came through the two procedures yesterday with flying colors and was in and out of surgery within an hour and up and talking in no time at all! Amazing! Doctors are encouraged at his progress and are saying that he should be home by Monday or Tuesday after all the doctors sign release paperwork on him and do their final inspections, I'm sure. LOOKING GOOD!
His sister, Aunt MaryAnne came in last night to offer her support, love and a needed hand to Kay and Ellen. Ellen has to return to work on Monday to train her summer camp staff this week as next week the 132 campers will arrive for 8 weeks of fun in the sun in South Florida. Kay has a list for MaryAnne to help out with starting Monday, but as for today she gets to re-group and enjoy the pool and lanai for a bit, along with some time visitig with her big brother. Kay and Ellen are so glad she was so quick to jump on a plane and come, we think we are perhaps over the 9am-9pm (Kay's) and 9pm-9am shifts (Ellen's) for now, as Neil is re-gaining his strength again.
Nurse Ellen reports that he slept much better last night with about 4 hours of sleep all in a row, which is a first in a while. She believes it was due to the relief of having the blood clots stopped and the chemo port in position for a new round of treatments to begin sooner rather than later to get him over the next hurdle. CHEMO may take 6 months and we are believing it will shrink the baseball size mass on his liver and clear up any cancer on the lymph nodes - keep those prayers coming they are sure needed and giving us all the strength we need day to day! Keep your stories coming too, just send the to Dean and he will post them on the blog.... Dad has so enjoyed all the stories shared, the love and laughs that we have all had with him for a lifetime! Thank you to all friends and family! (This nurse got 4 hours of sleep and is feeling good today!) Ahhhh!

As the doctors say, "One more speed bump overcome!)

Neillism of the day: Nurse enters to take more blood, he calls her the "Wicked Witch of the West" straight from the Wizard of Oz... LOL!!!

Much love to all, (this nurse is soon officially off duty for this week)...flying south for the summer!
Ellen