June 19

Hello. We had an exciting night last night. Mark starting having a harder and harder time urinating as the evening progressed yesterday. By bedtime, he wasn't able to go at all. We went to sleep hoping for the best, but a little nervous. Mark woke at 1:45 in quite a bit of pain and misery. He couldn't go and we had to drive to the ER. It was a LONG wait!!!! It took forever and he was in quite a bit of discomfort in the mean time. After the catheter, he was ready to leave, but they made us wait on urine tests, etc. He wasn't excited about all of that and we didn't get home until 5:15 this morning. We were both exhausted and ready for some sleep.

We called Dr McKenzie's office and waited on a return phone call on what the next step should be. They finally called back to inform us he would be in surgery all day and wouldn't come back to the office. Luckily, he gave me his pager number and told me to page him to give him updates on Mark, so I paged him and got to speak with him. He felt we should leave the catheter in another week and suggested even waiting until a week from Monday so that he would be in the office all day if we needed him. Mark wasn't thrilled, but it beats the alternative.

There is some talk that a nerve was cut during surgery and Mark's bladder isn't working at all. I don't think that to be the case since he got out almost a liter yesterday before things stopped again. Anyway, Dr. McKenzie just thinks he needs more time from this extensive surgery they did in the pelvis. They did a lot of dissection around the rectum, prostate, bladder and such. Mark will continue the Flomax to shrink the prostate tissue and we hope that helps some.

I know this may be way more details than some of you care to hear. Sorry.

Mark continues to heal. His wound looks good. They are leaving the bottom part open and letting it heal from the inside out. We will see the surgeon again Monday morning to let them peek at it.

God bless!!!!