WELL THIS IS IT! It is almost over. Tomorrow, May 27th, I will be going home. I am cancer free! At least for this day, this week I am like everyone else now, a real person again. Five days earlier, a surgeon had removed the upper lobe of her right lung as well as her lymph nodes. Jana had brought her to the hospital the day before that and had stayed with her while she was given a final physical, had showered and been covered with orange disinfectant. She had been at her bedside when Lacey had regained consciousness.

Now Lacey was using a walker to struggle around the corridor on the hospital ward where she was recovering. She felt awful. "How can anyone be this weak and still be alive?" Sure, now I've started talking to myself on top of everything else! A fat tube stuck out from her chest and was attached to a box that she had to carry with her wherever she went. The fluid draining from her chest collected in this box and she had been told she would probably have the tube in for another month. An IV pole delivered pain-killing medication to her frail body. The skin on her chest and back was itchy and raw from the radiation burns. Her head was itchy too, because of the stubble that was starting to grow in underneath the hat she wore to hide her baldness. The incredible pain that surfaced whenever her medication ran low took her breath away. Sick and dying people, all of whom were victims of terrible lung diseases, surrounded her.