Rilley is out of hospital and resting comfortably at the hotel

Rilley's poses with his neurosurgeon, Dr. Elizabeth Pluhar during his discharge from the Veterinary Medical Center. 

Rilley has amazed everyone, even the professionals at the Veterinary Medical Center at the University of Minnesota.  Less than 24 hours after his surgery he was discharged to us and is now resting comfortably at the hotel.

Rilley resting comfortably back at the hotel.  Don't let the scar fool you, he is pretty much back to normal.

We've even been given the go-ahead to begin the long trek back to Georgetown tomorrow.  So the girls will be able to see him before they go back to school!

Looking at the post-op MRI it is amazing to see how Rilley's brain had reclaimed the space taken up by the tumour.  The University will be providing us with copies of the images and we will post a comparison once those arrive back home.  Despite the fact that the tumour had begun to attach itself to Rilley's brain tissue, the experts agree that the tumour is completely gone.

Incidentally, on our way to pick Rilley up this morning, we were discussing that we had arrived in Minneapolis just in the nick of time.  Even though a meningioma is considered a slow growing tumour, had it been left in Rilley's head for any longer his life with us would have been cut much shorter than we had expected.  But now we know he is tumour free and ready to enjoy his life for the foreseeable future.

We are very excited to have him back with us and are looking forward to getting home.  We will post more about details about what are the next steps will be in the days to come.  Not to worry, this blog will continue with updates as he receives his bi-weekly vaccines and throughout his 3, 6 and 12 month visits back with Dr. Pluhar and beyond!  Yes, we will be doing the 32 hour, round trip trek three more times!  Despite the awesome work being done here and what looks to be fantastic results for Rilley, I am really not looking forward to those trips.  Does anyone know any nice people who would donate their private jet and/or local condo?  ;^)