Florida Sunshine...

I thought I deleted this picture. I was so happy when Kaylee found it on Facebook.com. It is her reading her story and posing as if she is in deep thought, wearing a wig, with her bald head proudly featured on the front page of the paper. She is so awesome.

I love her and held her tonight. It was so nice to have her want my hugs and little kisses. Lately she has been in pain, sick, and disinterested and I don't blamed her. That is the painful part for me. I'm a love & kisses kind of guy. Being distant and second to the cancer is hurtful. Kaylee is surviving and getting better and that's all that matters.

We ate McDonald's tonight. When we brought our meal home, we hollered out that we were ready to eat. Kay said she wanted to eat in her room. We said no. It was going to be our time to sit down together as a family.She didn't fuss, she sat and ate. We talked and she told me she read my blog last night. I asked what she thought and she said it was ok. I asked if she liked any certain one. She said they're all ok. Hmmm.

I asked if she liked the"West Virginia" blog. I had a good time writing that one. Again she acted as if my writing didn't attract her attention. I said the blog with the trailer. She said, "Oh I read that one, I especially liked the one you wrote where you acted like I was on a game show." She was coming clean. I said," did you read anything you didn't like?" She no.

She said everything looked good and she preceded to tell me about my other blogs. When we started our conversation she acted like she barely read the stories. Now she was telling me about several different blogs she liked and disliked. She didn't like the Three-Forty One. She said I was being critical of myself. I made fun of my self and she didn't care for that. I said I agreed. I was pointing out all my flaws, and she thinks I'm just fine. West Virginia blog was good to her because she said "I know your humor." How nice is that. She said other people might not get my jokes but she did. How sweet is that? My kid knows me.

I asked her if she was uncomfortable or thought I shared too much. She said no. I told her I referenced her menstrual cycle with the word "girly issues." But now I think back and remember I deleted all references of menstrual out of the blogs so she wouldn't get embarrassed. But Kaylee said it was fine to mention because it was the symptom that revealed the cancer. Let me explain.

When my daughter was sick, she was on her period. No big deal, but she couldn't stop bleeding. This was the thing that put up the red flag to doctors. She was anemic. Blood disease. But we didn't know the period and cancer had anything to do with each other. It was the period that got everyones attention. We left the period out when we went to Urgent Care on June 19, 2007. It was none of their business but they should have asked. They didn't. I made it a point to tell the doctor in Columbia about the heavy bleeding. It was something that was out of wack and someone was going to hear about it.

I started writing this blog and felt like I should tell people about the signs we caught after the diagnosis. The period being number one. The Florida Tan. The bug bites. This period thing was huge. Tammie said she was bleeding heavy because Tammie bleeds heavy at times and it runs in the family...????? Wrong! She was bleeding to death. She had lost pints of blood. The tan, I thought she had a Florida golden tan. Wrong! She was Jaundice. The bug bites, were chigger bites. Wrong! It was a condition called petechiae, low platelets and something else. These three things were signs and we didn't catch it. I told Tammie we can't beat ourselves up over this, we 're just lucky we got her to the doctor on time.

So my conclusion is, Kaylee is awesome, again. She wants to educate, she wants everyone to know if you don't feel right let someone know. A simple sign is what can save you or someone you love. A mother I was talking with in the cancer department of the hospital said she was soooo upset that she didn't jump into action when she was told her daughter looked pale. She said several people commented on this and she kept telling everyone she got the pale color from her Fathers side of the family. I could totally relate. I thought kaylees glowing yellow tan was from the Florida sunshine! Wrong!

So if something changes or that tan turns jaundice, go to the doctor!