From The Gunny's Wife

It is 5:30 pm and it seems that we have come full circle. JD is in the ICU eating ice chips and being a chatty cathy with the nurse. It must be the pain killers because the Gunny is sharing stories of the kids. I do not think they would be thrilled.

The nurse is named Jerry and he is very good at what he does. He is wearing a t-shirt with the superman symbol and I secretly think JD is jealous. We all know that he thinks that he is superman. He got a t-shirt this morning from Brian Rideout that said so... Male ego's...where would we be with out them.

At 6:00 am we had our first visitor and then about 10 minutes later, we had family start to roll in to see JD before he went in. I felt bad for the two other guys in the other part of the room. I know that they were trying to sleep.

The nurse rolled JD down to pre-op, he said his good byes to all and in we went. The pre-op room was the holding chamber before the surgery took place. We talked to the doctors. They gave JD his happy drugs and out he went. I hoped it was to a good place. I did try to ask if he needed to share anything with me while he was drugged, but his military brothers took care of him and wheeled him off before any answers could be given.

Now came the waiting game. The waiting rooms are not that big and we had at least 30 family members and friends waiting to see what life would bring. It was a long time to wait. The room was quiet and it seemed everyone was in their own thoughts. It made me wonder what people were thinking at times. Then I looked at my brother in law and he was snoring up a storm. That made me laugh.

He was finally out of surgery and I spoke to the doctor. Dr. Cooper said the surgery went well. He took a 1 cm piece fof the tumor for the pathologist and a little bit more out called debulking. We will know exactly what we are dealing with in 7 to 10 days. This will be the longest and hardest wait of my life. We have a very good chance that the tumor is not as bad as we thought..but it still one of those hold your breath moments.

Everyone has gone home for the night and life has somewhat resumed. Maddie is playing softball tonight and Jake is at the field as well. We hope that Maddie has a great game and plays well.

Years from now when I look back over this moment I will remember a few key factors. One- How scared I was for JD and wanting him to be well. Two- the amount of family members and friends that waited with me and Three- the amount of support that we have received during this time. I think this is the most amazing feeling I have experienced in my life. The pulling together for a person and his family because they care. Who really would have ever guessed, I can say it would not have been me. I am humbled to the point that no words will ever be able to express enough the gratitude for all.