Late Wednesday Night

Mark has made some good progress this week, good enough that we can't wait until the usual end of the week report. Stan was there early yesterday, and when he arrived, they had Mark sitting up on the side of the bed. Nurse said last night that he sat up for about 20 minutes. When Stan walked in, the nurse asked him "do you know who this is? Is this your wife's brother? " And Mark said "No, sister's husband". They used the attached voice box some yesterday, and yesterday evening, they removed it and capped it off, and the male nurse said "now he can just talk normally if he wants to". Kim just called and said she was just leaving for the night, heading home, and that they had removed his trache this afternoon. First time he's been free of that in nearly three months. He'll need some practice, and is trying to talk normally, but the opening is not yet completely closed. Corale and daughter Erica were there tonight. As was sister Kim and old friend Marlo. So the end of the day has more good news for all of us. As his Mom used to say, "Way to go Markie".