Tom made more progress today. They took the catheter out last night, and the (huge) drainage tubes out of his chest this morning, and both helped immensely. He has been doing his laps around the ICU unit (I'm surprised at how fast he goes; I was expecting a very slow shuffle) and he was a big hit wearing the Santa hat I brought for him today. 

 The only issue now is his chest pain. Of course the morphine and Percocet help, but when he gets the hiccups it's pretty bad. 

 Still, when I left this evening it hadn't even been 48 hours since the surgery, and all the doctors and nurses are very impressed with his progress. He's doing better than hoped for when blowing into his breathing tube, and I expect him to be moved out of ICU tomorrow.

He still doesn't have much appetite, but did manage to eat a little today. For breakfast he had a little Cream of Wheat, for lunch some fruit, and for dinner a bowl of beef barley soup. At least he is taking in a lot of water and juice, and I doubt he'll starve from not eating much for a few days.

I 'snuck out' of the hospital and kept my lunch date with Renee at Le Chalet; and since I was right next door I stopped in at the gym to give the manager an update on Tom, and thank them for everyone's help on Monday. (I also asked if they'd ever had to use the AED before, and it turns out that they hadn't ever had the need. But we now know for sure that it works! When I say it was a lifesaver, I am speaking literally!)

Tomorrow morning we have a Discharge Class at 11:00. I'm wondering how long the list of restrictions will be. Tom is still pretty loopy from the drugs (at times he thought he was back in Texas) and can't remember much, so they wanted to make sure that I'd be there. No problem!

He still doesn't feel like talking to anyone on the phone, but I've passed along all the good wishes that have come his way, and he appreciates them.