FRIDAY EVENING UPDATE:

The most embarrassing thing that happened to me today:

Falling asleep on a sofa in the Surgery Intensive Care Waiting Room. (Hey, cut me some slack. Blaine was first in line for surgery today and we had to get up at the insane hour of 4am to make it to the hospital in time!)

What made it even more embarrassing:

Waking myself up because I was snoring so loud.

What made it even more, MORE embarrassing:

Realizing that I was not only snoring, but drooling.

The icing on the humilation-cake:

Hearing a young boy across the room stage whisper to his mom: "Wow, that lady finally quit snoring!"

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Thank you all so, so much, from the bottom of my heart, for all the warm thoughts, prayers, and kind messages in the guestbook. It's truly heart-warming to come here and see so many notes of support.

Surgery did not go as well as could be expected. They weren't able to do all of the reconstructive work, nor were they able to remove all of the tumors, so we're most likely looking at radiation in about six weeks. The good news is that there is a business center here in the hotel I can use, and they served my favorite whitefish in the hospital cafeteria today. And really, isn't that all that matters? MY appetite? :)

We'll know more in a few days, when the final pathology report comes in. In the meantime, he's in good hands in Intensive Care, although in a lot of pain this evening. I feel terrible leaving him here, but I have to get home tomorrow because Kellen has a basketball game, and because (are you ready for this?) it appears our wonderful, gentle, loving 15-yr old dog has picked this weekend to die. SERIOUSLY!! All I'm waiting for now is lightning to strike and burn down our home, or a plague of locusts to attack and eat all our crops! Poor Grandma got way more than she bargained for with the dog, and he's at the vet now on IV meds and fluids. The vet says I need to be there by noon tomorrow, so I'm glad Blaine is being taken good care of here (how's *that* for a grammatically incorrect phrase?) so I can go home and deal with the poor old, deaf, arthritic pooch, who will hopefully rebound and go back to driving us crazy.

So, specific prayer requests for us:

1) Pain relief for Blaine.
2) Miracle-recovery for Lager, the wonder-mutt.
3) A vat of liquor for Kristie so deep I'll have to take stilts and a snorkel with me!