UPDATED: Brain Surgery Day

 Marlene: Writing this post on Monday evening, and setting to go live at 6 am our time on Tuesday, September 8. At that time, we should be at the hospital. So no, Valerie, I'm not posting from the operating table!  :-) Technology is!

We had a joyful Monday as we got to spend time with both sets of kids. What a privilege! We had a photo shoot in Gage park, using the magnificent plants and flowers to play with backgrounds. Below is a quick collage of just a few shots.

Tripod, remote shutter release, various stops and poses and patient subjects.

Afterwards, we stopped at T by Daniel  and had the man himself serve us with his usual exuberance!
Thank you to so many people for love and care, messages and calls, concern and prayers. We can never thank you enough.
Off to bed now --- and Jenni will take over, posting a few times during the day as she gets updates from Arno. Remember to hit Refresh / reload if you come back later for updates!

Jenn (11.30am): Marlene and Arno made it to the hospital at 6am and were processed through very quickly by hospital staff. Arno sent this pic at a bit before 8am saying that they had an estimated 3 to 4 hour operation ahead and when I last followed up around 11.15am, it was still a work in progress.

12:30pm: Marlene is out of surgery. The doctors say that they were successful in removing most of the growth and preliminary analysis shows it to be benign. She will be kept in recover for a couple of hours and then moved to the after-surgery critical care area so that the staff can monitor her.

1:30pm: Arno sent a couple of pics of Marlene coming to with her head bandaging slightly visible in the second photo (the surgeons shaved a piece off near the top of her head ... very punk rock!). He says she is a bit groggy but is talking and seems to be doing okay.

5:00pm: Marlene is on her way to the critical care area. As you can see, she's already on the phone and checking in on people.

6:20pm: Marlene sent me a collage of what she sees from her bed right now with all of the cables and tubes hooked up to her. Says her head is a bit sore but mostly okay, and that her hair feels the weirdest right now! All stiff from the operation. She will be staying in this room until tomorrow afternoon and then should be moved to a shared room at that point. (TW: picture below includes a shot of the bandages, which are a bit bloody)

7:00pm: No coffee, but Marlene gets a liquid dinner (not that kind of liquid dinner...)