Monday evening, my 19-year-old daughter logged onto the Web moments after they wheeled her up from recovery after her mandibular osteotomy and connected her to all the tubes in her hospital room.

First, she signed on to AOL.com to check e-mail. Then she logged on to MySpace and Facebook. No, she didn't bring her laptop. The room was equipped with a wireless keyboard and full Internet access. Her father and I watched in amazement, but my eyesight wasn't good enough to peek at her MySpace page.

"Hospitals have sure changed," her father muttered, shaking his head. I think it's great. The child can't talk for at least a week as her mouth is wired shut, so the phone is out. She can keep up with her life without missing a beat.

We brought her home yesterday, and this afternoon I watched teenage social networking up close. Two of her friends dropped by with the obligatory flowers, balloons and lots of sympathy. They watched as I asked if she needed anything and waited as she wrote out her response. I left them alone and then tried to finish my blog entry. Within two minutes, Jeremy came out and said that my daughter wanted to tell me something.

"What do you need, Sweetie?" I asked. She began typing and a voice emanated from her laptop.

"I wanted to thank you and may I have some ginger ale?" the voice said. She smiled as much as she could through her jaw bra.

Let's face it. Kids don't have the patience to wait for the patient to write out all her responses. So, in this case, they just took matters in their own hands and found some assistive technology right on her laptop's control panel under Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices. Who knew?

You have to be impressed. They hooked her up with some text to voice software. After all, she can type like the dickens... almost as fast as she can talk. This will come in handy. She can answer the phone now, too, which is a help, even if it's just to say:

"I'm sorry. I can't help. Whom may I say is calling?"

or

"Sure. I will buzz you in."

Last I heard they were Googling celebrity voices she could swap in and out. I wonder if George Clooney is available.