on the road to recovery.

Alicia: "Hey Chelsea, your sweatshirt is in."

Me: "Ok."

Alicia: "Maybe you can just embroider it yourself."

Me: "Ha, yeah, sure, I'll just teach myself."

Alicia: "Well it's not like it's brain surgery or anything."

If you're wondering how Alicia is doing, the previous conversation is a good example. Surgery slowed her down, but it didn't take away her sense of humor.

Today has been a long but good day. She was moved to a regular room around 10am this morning, which means we have the freedom to come and go as we please (I haven't utilized that "go" option yet). We're asking that anyone other than family still refrain from visiting until Sean decides she's ready. She is in and out of sleep and tires quickly.

We've had nurses, administrators, social workers and physical therapists in throughout the day to check on her progress. Though her left side is noticeably weaker and less coordinated (she's naturally right-handed as it is), she's doing really well and has even gone on three walks down the hall today. Tasks such as eating and brushing teeth are mandated to the left side to force her to work on retraining those motor skills.

I'm honestly more emotional today than I was yesterday. Waiting through surgery was a beast, but watching my sister have to work at things that most of us consider simple tasks has given me a permanent lump in my throat. It's her strength, grace and positive outlook that has kept me together while watching her work so hard  to improve as the day has worn on. I can't even begin to express how proud I am of her as I watch her from the corner and listen to her jokes.

We're still waiting on the biopsy results, but we know they successfully removed 95-98% of the tumor and that it's a low grade tumor.

As I sit here, she's working with Sean to feed herself. He's draped a towel across her so she doesn't have worry about crumbs or spills. To that, she replied, "Hashtag O-O-T-D (outfit of the day): chicken and dumplings!" Seriously, it's so refreshing to hear and see her making light of the situation.

(And now he's making her hold out her hands and turn them over from one side to the other…to which she replied, "Heyyyyyy Macarena!")