"Negative" is a wonderful word.

We just talked to Dr. Hunter. Mike's out of surgery, everything went fine. The margins - the bladder tissue around the tumor - were negative (as in, no signs of cancer), as were the lymph samples they took.

It's hard to convey the sense of relief that went through all of us with those simple words. There's no sign of cancer in the remaining bladder tissue, no complications during the surgery, negative negative negative.

The tumor was about 3cm, and Mike only lost about 10% of his bladder.

This is, honestly, the best outcome we could hope for.

*update*

While I was typing the above, a nurse came and got us; Mike now has a room of his own so we're moving our camp. He'll be in post-op monitoring for about 90 minutes (or so; it varies a bit) and then will be moving to his own room. Dr. Hunter is expecting that Mike will spend two nights here and then go home, but we'll see how things go - if he's unusually quick to recover he could be out of here Wednesday, or it could take until Friday until he's able to walk, eat and has the post-operative pain under control.

- Kevin