Luke is doing great. It was a long day for Luke’s family but they are feeling much better being on this side of the day.

Luke’s old kidneys took just 40 minutes to remove. They were large and hard. They had expected and planned for them taking much longer to remove, so they spent some time waiting for Stuart’s kidney. Stuart’s kidney took several hours to remove.  I heard the new kidney started working right away.

Kirsten hadn’t seen Luke when I spoke to her around 5pm, but she expected to be able to see him as he was being wheeled by out of the ICU and into a recovery room. They expect he won’t need to be intubated past tonight – also ahead of schedule. I suspect that when K does see Luke, she’ll be able to exhale, because honestly, I don’t think I heard her take a breath the entire conversation.

And well, she wanted to check on Gage. Which amazes me. And it doesn’t.

Gage is resting well. His liver "looks good" on visual inspection and we expect pathology reports on Thursday. He has no problems with varices. At all. Not even a little. Gage is doing better having had a slushie and pop tart.

So, it’s been a great day in kidney and liver land. Great indeed.