August 31, 2010

Hello All-

Mom did a great job of updating the day. I just wanted to add my own........flavor.

It was so wonderful meeting another patient (Terry) who was able to tell me exactly what he is going through after the surgery. He is doing well, and I certainly will keep him in my thoughts. He and Karen were great, they took the time to really inform us about what going through the surgery entails. I feel bad for Mom, Dad, and Emily. While i'm in La-La-Land during the surgery, they have to be out in the waiting room, well, waiting. There's no chance of not waiting, that's the name of the room. But I digress. Terry has had a tough road since his surgery in June, and he was adamant still that I would not regret at all our decision to have this done. They truly were a delight to talk to. Anybody walking by could tell that we were not from around here, them with their Oklahoma accents, and Mom and I with our No'East accents.

Meeting with Dr. Sutherland was certainly the highlight of my day. I was still anxious about certain aspects of the actual surgery, and, after five minutes with him, my confidence level had risen substantially. I appreciated how the very first thing he wanted to do was listen to me. Most doctors want you to listen to them (no offense), and it's refreshing for a doctor to realize the best way to judge how sick I am is to simply ask me. I could tell quickly he hates this disease as much as we do. That realization inspires miles of confidence, and mounds of trust. I figure we should trust him, considering what we are asking him to do.

This afternoon was lazy once we got back to our hotel. I fell asleep for a while, which was, well, awesome, and soon we are going to figure out dinner and maybe something to do tonight. We'll see, i'm still pretty tired. Long couple of days.

Thanks to everybody for your great comments, emails, calls, posts on our Facebooks, and prayers. We truly do appreciate it, and love all of you. Thank you.

Written by Joshua Benson 8/31/10