Under the knife!! (from Mat)

This was a long day but came out beautifully!  The surgeon came out to report to me about 75 minutes after they wheeled her out.  He stated that the mastectomy went as hoped and that the lymph node they also removed looked negative for cancer!  There are still lab results on the node and the original lump that we must receive before we officially celebrate that indication though.  But I got that initial good news to start the day and that carried me through the long wait.  The plastic surgeon then took over to reconstruct and that took an additional 7 or more hours.  Its a challenging job to find appropriate veins and link the tiny blood vessels together to feed the tissue taken from her abdomen for the reconstruction.  But that surgeon came out very pleased with how it turned out as well.  So Kim is now in Intensive Care for the night, being closely monitored for her circulation.  If all continues well, then she will move to a normal room tomorrow afternoon and be there until Thursday.  Thank you for all your support and prayers, they were definitely felt today and overwhelmingly effective!!

Thanks to Eileen Miners for the last minute early morning help, and to Kari and company for all the work and help today that will make a huge difference for Kim.
My other tender mercy today was sitting down to eat breakfast with the December Ensign and on the way to opening to another article finding one about a retired man caring for his ill wife.  It squared my shoulders up.  Read that if you haven't.  Thanks again to all for your prayers--she is groggy but the news is great!