We arrived at Children’s Hospital at 10:45 a.m. for Jude’s 12:15 p.m. surgery. They were running late, but, in the end, everything worked out according to my master plans (it took some convincing, as I suspected it would). They were able to put him to sleep with gas instead of IV medicines and then poked him with the IV after he was already sleeping. They also did a blood draw to test for allergies after he was sleeping. The port removal went great. They saved the port for me and I showed it to Jude. He was pretty surprised that that big thing was in his chest for so long. So glad to get that thing out! After the port removal, Jude was wheeled into radiology for his first post-operative/radiation MRI. It was a long day and we didn’t get back to see Jude until almost 4 p.m.  I then got a call from Jude’s oncologist who said that the scan looked good. There is some “inflammation” visible around the old tumor bed area, but that is it. I certainly wasn’t expecting any regrowth. After all, if the cancer is going to come back, it shouldn’t be visible so soon. She said that so far “he is free and clear.”  Jude had a hard time waiting to eat and a rough time when the IV was removed, but other than that, it was a fine day for him.