My Aunt Jane is sick again

We've known since right after my birthday in April that the dreaded 'c' word is back again for the third time in less than 3 years.

We've had such hope.

Aunt Jane (my dad's only sister) was diagnosed with a rare uterine cancer two weeks after my dad died from lung cancer. She had surgery, chemo and did wonderful. She was cancer free and we rejoiced!

It came back... in her lung. She had a lobe of her lung removed and did great. Her doctors did not recommend chemo because it was ineffective the first time so we waited and had great hope it would stay dormant for years.

This time the cancer is back and the doctors say she will never be cancer free. It's in her stomach, adrenal glands, liver, and lung now. She's tried another type of chemo agent and it was unsuccessful. Right now she's in the hospital because the tumor perforated her small intestine. They've done surgery so now we just wait. She's six hours away so I feel pretty helpless. I want to be with her.

When most people hear that my aunt is sick they think, oh that's sad but it's not like a parent or grandparent. Oh, it was painfully hard when my grandmother whom I loved so much passed away October 2009, and it was heart-wrenching hard when my Daddy passed away January 2011, but Aunt Jane is not just 'any' aunt.

Since my sister and I were born she's been 'twitter-pated' (her words.. remember Bambi?) with Audra and I. She's been at pretty much ever major life event and more. When we were 3 and 4 years old she flew home with Uncle Richard for Christmas with two Golden Retriever puppies with big red bows on their necks. She's taken us on countless vacations and spent hours upon hours with us. When I was seven, I flew with her and my Uncle to Georgia to spend a week and I wasn't homesick a bit. When I was a little girl and  in love with Anne of Green Gables she bought and booked our hotel at Dalvay by the Sea.. the hotel that appeared as the "White Sands Hotel" in the movie. She took us to New York and introduced us to the theater. In highschool she took Audra and I to Paris and Amsterdam when the tulips were in bloom. When I was 16 and angry at my mom for grounding me, I took off in my car to drive 6 hours to Georgia to my Aunt (how in the world I got there before the age of GPS and cell phones I don't know!).  In 2005 when I finished grad school and Audra finished undergrad she took us Ireland and we stayed in bed and breakfasts, sipped a Guinness, and kissed the Blarney stone. So many wonderful trips and more I could name. When my dad got sick, she packed up and came and stayed with him until the end. Aunt Jane was there the night he died in his sleep and it was her on the phone that morning in my classroom at school telling me my daddy was dead. Honestly I don't the words to express how much she means to me.

So it looks bleak right now but I'm not giving up hope. She is a fighter and she is a strong woman. We are hoping she can recover from this surgery and can go to MD Anderson in Houston for another opinion on a chemo drug that can shrink these tumors or put them in remission. So if you think about it, please say a prayer for my Aunt Jane. She's a phenomenal woman.