A lot of you have asked me for updates on my friend Jackie! because I haven’t written about her since her surgery in January. I have a hard time writing about her. First, because I get really emotional; second (and most importantly), it’s not my place to tell certain parts of her story.

I went up to visit her in San Francisco the weekend before April 7th. I needed to see her. We spent the weekend together, had a few good meals and a walk on the beach, and did a lot of lounging and talking and just being together. It almost sounds like we had a romantic weekend! And we did share a bed, hee. But it was perfect, watching movies, enjoying each other’s company and easy silences.

After Jackie!’s surgery in January, the doctors discovered her brain tumor had progressed to Stage IV (I’m really simplifying all of this). She entered a drug trial in San Francisco and we all hoped it would do its job and prolong her life.

A couple days after I returned to LA, we found out that Jackie!’s tumor was back. And, it is bigger than it was before her last craniotomy. She decided to enroll in a different drug trial that will require another brain surgery that is currently scheduled at 12:45 PDT today. I say scheduled, because as she was waiting for her pre-surgery MRI, she had a seizure. No one knows how this will impact her surgery schedule, but we’re all hoping it will still go off as planned.

In typical Jackie! fashion, she jokingly updated her facebook status that she had her seizure to “keep things interesting.” I’m not going to talk about her strength or positivity because she’ll read this in a few days and punch me in the face for writing it. I know she says she’s putting on a brave face. But you have to have some inner strength for that, and Jackie! has it.

I am really a nervous wreck about her surgery, even though I have this warped feeling like I shouldn’t be so amped up about it. But I am, I am consumed with thoughts of her and have been for a week now. I just cannot bear thinking of her recovering from another painful surgery, starting another drug trial, dealing with side effects. I just want her to catch a break. I want her parents and siblings and her approximately 18 million nieces and nephews to all breathe a little easier.

Every time I ask you all to keep Jackie! in your thoughts, hopes, and prayers, you all come through for me in a big way. And I’m going to ask again. For Jackie!, the one that has supported me since the day my OB told me all those years ago that my pregnancy with Maddie wouldn’t last. Please lift her in your hearts and minds, pray if that’s what you do, send positive energy, everything you can, to Jackie! and her family today.

Jackie and me

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.