No Writing in ICU

Sorry I haven't posted any writing updates in the past few days. I've been busy. My niece, Jamey, went into Children's Hospital Tuesday morning to have surgery on both of her lungs to remove cancerous nodules that had metastisized from bone cancer. At 23, she is the most amazingly brave young woman I know.

Her right leg, which was the initial sight of the cancer, was removed above the knee in November and she's been in the hospital more days than she's been out since her original diagnosis in September.

After yesterday's surgery, she was in a lot of pain, but within 12 hours they had her pain-free. Her Mom, Grandma and I as well as her boyfriend, "Saint" Chad, and his father and stepmother spent the morning in the surgery hospitality room and the afternoon in the ICU waiting room until we could go in two-by-two to rub her fuzz covered head or kiss the small patch of skin on her arm that wasn't wrapped or tubed or too painful to be touched.

Tonight, just 36 hours after her surgery began, the oxygen was gone, the tube to her right lung was gone, she'd been moved from ICU back to her regular floor, and she had already gotten out of bed to sit in a chair for awhile. When I arrived she was back in bed, but sitting up to eat a McDonald's cheeseburger with pickles and fries with ketchup.

I knew she had really made it through when her friends Amanda and Jesus arrived and she turned to her mother and I and said, "It's time for all the grown-ups to go home now." Dutifully, we left.

Check back tomorrow for a new writing post.

p.s. if you're a golfer check out Golfers Against Cancer. It's a golf tournament fund raiser for cancer research on osteosarcoma, the type of bone cancer Jamey has.