Note: This post is from Eric.

Sorry about the lack of a blog post last night. It was a very late night for us and I couldn't bring myself to write. I'll update you here as best I can to catch us up.

I arrived at the hospital shortly after 8 a.m. which was after the visitor lock-out was lifted. I was disappointed, however, to find that regular visiting hours did not start until Noon and that, since Sydney was the overnight visitor, I could not trade places with her until then.

I called Hannah on her mobile to tell her this. Apparently she had woken shortly before because she was hungry and she had been told by her nurse (who is the only person we've encountered so far who lacked any tact or grace) that she could not eat yet. She was upset when I called and was even more upset to hear that I could not come in for another 4 hours. Fortunately the head nurse was willing to make an exception and I was back with Hannah in short order.

Hannah was able to eat her first post-op meal a few hours later. She had watered down cream of wheat and apple juice. Early that evening she was able to have a more substantial meal of spaghetti and salad which made her feel much better.

By 5:00 p.m. we had still not moved out of the ICU which we were anxious to get out of because it was quite a hassle for me to come and go. There was way more freedom upstairs. At around 5:30 Hannah had her post-op MRI to see how well the surgeon had done removing the mass. By the time she was finished they had her room upstairs ready and we moved. It was such a relief to get there. It's on the 12th floor, at the top, and has a nice view of the city.

Early this morning, Hannah received the news that the MRI showed that all of the tumor had been successfully removed and that the accompanying cysts are draining. This is fantastic news! Hannah has done very well today. She is eating well and has taken about a dozen steps which is good progress. She still can't feel her legs and so she has to look at them when she walks, but we are told this will improve. Tonight her nurse told us that she is improving much faster than most patients with this type of surgery which was great to hear.

A bit of sore news we received was that Hannah would be transferred early next week to the spinal injury hospital for in-patient rehabilitation. They expect that she will be released two weeks from today. That puts us a week past when we thought we would be home which is discouraging. We both miss the kids and I'm sure they miss us. We appreciate everybody back home who is helping out with them.

If you're interested in helping Hannah during her recovery, you can email granatavolunteers@gmail.com expressing your desire. Jenny Kouri is coordinating a care calendar and will email invites to it soon.