How YOU doin'?

So maybe it's appropriate that I happen to be watching not-quite-as-funny-as-it-was-when-it-first-aired 'Friends' episodes, when our longtime friend Toni asks to hear how everyone else in the family is doing (I try to imagine her imitating Joey...it kind of makes me chuckle).

We're doin' OK. For anyone who's been through anything like this, I don't think I have to tell you that it's like putting all of your emotions into a blender and selecting 'frappe'. It becomes a concotion that marries a bunch of flavors, and tastes anywhere from decent to downright disgusting, depending on the time of day you take a sip. For so long (actually, it was measured in weeks, but seems much longer), we waited for the surgery day to arrive. We physically prepared -- packing, arranging who's going to be where and when...and we mentally prepared, trying to come to grips with the fact that everything seemed to be going along so well before some amateur, aspiring magician yanked the tablecloth out from under our neatly-set table. We reminded ourselves that we have to be strong and positive. And then the surgery day came. It went so well. We cried because we were happy and relieved.

And then we realized that for every mountain you climb, you have to shimmy your way back down. Down Cancer Mountain we go, this part of the journey called 'recovery'.

And the truth? TISNF. You've seen that commercial with the mom grilling the girl about texting, and the girl protests in the above text-speak. It's so not fair. And for everyone who says 'life's not fair', I say 'yep, and we're allowed to voice protest to that anytime we feel like it'. So we're getting through by vocalizing to one another that it sucks. And that Mom wants to go home and wants Dad to be able to go home, to actually sleep through the night and eat a real meal without tubes and nurses. And that I want all this medical jargon to be a part of my historical vocabulary. And that crying gets old and generally makes one feel unattractive and puffy.

And we're so fortunate to be vocal to one another about having to delay plans...rather than not have the chance to make plans at all.

Each time we talk, we remind ourselves that we *are* OK. We've got Chuck and we've got each other. The one thing that we always end up talking about -- We have all of you to thank for helping us on both sides of the journey. You know us -- we're a ridiculously strong and stubborn family, another 'frappe' of unique personalities who've managed to add some of the best people in the world into the blender.

If we didn't have that, who could we turn to?

IDK...my BFF Jill?