It was a very miserable ride to Childrens Hospital Of Pittsburgh. The weather was terrible and it seemed to take forever to get there. It took us nearly two hours. Once we got there I was alone with Sandy for about twenty minutes until Lori and her parents arrived.It was December 22, 1997 at about 11:00 pm. One of the only things I recall anyone from the transport team saying to me was that we have a long road ahead of us....this was the truth...Our Little Sandy was rushed for an emergency MRI.This had to be done to find out exactly what they were going to try to remove. The neurosurgeon who read the scan came to tell us that the tumor was probably cancerous...as he told us this he was crying... After this she was taken to surgery to have the tumor removed from her brainstem. We waited in a waiting room with many other families who were there because they too had children in the ICU. This waiting room was decorated for Christmas....From there I made calls to our families to tell them all what was going on...it was not the type of news I wanted to tell them at all, especially two days before Christmas.
Sandy was in surgery for about five hours and every hour or so a nurse would come out to give us an update...
We still couldn't believe that this was happening and we were all just waiting to see Our Little Sandy come out of surgery......

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So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trust in who we are
And nothing else matters...

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours we live it our way
Oh these words I don't just say
And nothing else matters....

Never cared for what they do
Never cared for what they know....
And I know....

Trust I seek and I find in you
every day for us something new
Open eyes for a different view
And nothing else matters.....

So close no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
forever trust in who we are
And nothing else matters....

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(METALLICA)