My loyal henchman at work assures me one can live with approximately 22% of their liver. He should know as his mom is currently battling secondary cancer of the liver. My Pilates coach is battling brain cancer and he says liver cancer is bad. Play Brother doesn’t officially have cancer but there’s a large mass in his liver. He had a biopsy today. We’ll find out the news in a few days.

When we visited Play Brother in the hospital today, he had all sorts of tubes in him. He has lost lots of weight. His spirits are high but his parents and girlfriend look terrified. If I wasn’t so busy being the life of the party for Play Brother, I might have cried. I think back to my depression of the last two weeks and I feel foolish. As far as I know, all my cells are growing normally and no bacteria have taken up residence in major organs. I am lucky.

I didn’t go to the Big Game. I couldn’t sit in Memorial Stadium and laugh and cheer, knowing that my sister-in-law, best friend, and Play Brother are experiencing grief and pain. That wouldn’t be right.

Now I have to focus on sharing my health. So often, I take on the suffering of others, sometimes with negative outcomes. Now, I need to be the strong and happy one for those I love, for those willing to fight to live.