more info about the surgery

talked to the doctor to get some more info about surgery...

Mark was not able to give his second pint of blood on Tuesday because he had a slight fever and swollen glands. We have to monitor his health. If it doesn't improve by Monday, surgery may be cancelled. They will not administer anastesia if he is ill. Mark is laying low and resting trying to keep well. If surgery cancelled, there may be an opening on 12/20, but if not, it could be postponed till after the holidays :/

hospital:
10833 LeConte Avenue, Westwood, CA 90095
310-825-4321
the surgery will take 6-8 hours
Mark will not be awake during the surgery
he will be in ICU the first 2 days and family will not be able to stay
he'll be in an open area with just curtains and other patients and it will be noisy
he probably won't be alert til late in the evening and may not remember anything if spoken to that night
he should be more alert the next day
he will eventually be moved to a more private room on the third day
he should be in the hospital at least 5 days but could be longer
visiting hours are 8:30am-7pm, but not between 2pm-4pm
he will be very tired the first few weeks and will sleep alot
he will be going through some sort of physical therapy where they will come to the house (home health)
they will shave his head an inch on either side of the incision
the incision will be about 8 inches long
after surgery it will have staples
he will not be able to get them wet for 10-14 days while staples are in