Week 10

As I write this Tracy has had 17 treatments.  I will try to be brief with this post to get them back to maybe every other day or third day.

Last Friday night I left Tracy in the hands of our friend Sarah Hartfield and headed home to take Drew out to a wild game banquet.  I had reserved the tickets for us back in November while Tracy was still in Beaumont, never even dreaming that we would still be in the hospital let alone U of M.

It was very difficult leaving Trace, but I knew it would be good to go home and spend a night in our own bed for the first time since December 2^nd.  Sarah arrived shortly after I left and updated me throughout the evening on how Tracy was doing.

Drew and I arrived at the dinner much to the surprise of Steve Maniaci, who had invited us back in November, but didn’t expect to see us there.  Drew did not know what to expect, but quickly caught on, eating the likes of pheasant pot pie, wild boar and buffalo meatballs, venison stew, smelt, shaved buffalo, rabbit and venison steaks.  He ate, and ate, and ate and ate some more.

I woke up early Saturday morning and called to see how Tracy’s night was, and it was just fine.  I went back to sleep and slept better the next two hours than I had the previous.  We got a fair amount of snow Friday night, so I then headed out to shovel.  But our neighbor Steve Merkel came to the rescue with his snow blower, thanks Steve.  This allowed me to head up to SoRoSbux (my Starbucks) and coffee for Steve, Drew and myself.  I miss my SoRoSbux.

Before heading out to Ann Arbor, Drew and I stopped and watched our boys play basketball.  Drew and I have coached the same group of boys for the last 4 years in our churches Upward Basketball league.  This is the first year we haven’t coached them and thought it would be fun to stop in and watch them on our way out of town.  It was wonderful, they are currently 5^th graders playing in a 6^th grade league and they won!  What was even better was meeting with them afterwards.  We always prayed with them at every game and practice and Saturday their parents prayed for our family before we left for Ann Arbor.

Drew beat me to Ann Arbor and waited for me to go to Trace’s room together.  Tracy was happy to see us.  We spent a couple of hours with her before heading out to dinner.

Sunday was a quite day.  Tracy was kind of lethargic, and Drew had lots of homework to get done before he started his studying for his first semester finals.  I rewarded him with a late lunch at the Maize and Blue Deli, which I highly recommend (thanks Bill).

Drew left early Sunday to head home and go to WSM, our high school ministry at church.  He just missed Jayne Riley, a friend of ours that used to live here some 15 years ago.  We had not seen Jayne for some time, and she had just recently found out about Tracy’s journey.  We spent probably two hours with Tracy and then Jayne and I spent probably another two hours just talking, as Jayne had just recently been in the same position that I am in, with her sister.  It was some good therapy for me.  Thanks Jayne, we miss you guys.

I stayed with Trace until around 9PM and headed back to my room for bed.

Monday was treatment 16.  It went well but I didn’t know this until around 1PM, as this last week was quite the week for me.  As I head several meetings scheduled for our business throughout the week.  I went down with Tracy for her treatment and then left for a morning meeting with Design Hub, our marketing consultants.  Returned to the hospital just in time to stop them from double dosing Tracy again.  I just don’t get it?  This is why I hate to not be around.  I then went to find out how her treatment had gone and spent almost 2 hours explaining Tracy’s journey to them.

I quickly headed back to Trace’s room for a bit before meeting friends for the evening.  She had just finished her physical therapy and just started her occupational therapy.  They said they were going very well, as the therapists were pleased with progress.

I met my golfing buddies Steve Maniaci, Bob Tremonti and Lennie Joseph in West Bloomfield for the evening and had a wonderful time.  It was truly needed and literally was what the doctor ordered!

Tuesday was a long day!  I was in Tracy’s room shortly after 6AM and spent around 15 minutes with her before I left for a Peerspectives meeting in Pontiac, a little over and hour away.  This is a business owners group that I meet with monthly to discuss different issues in our businesses and it is truly a give and take group and Tuesday they gave to me!  Thanks guys.

Wednesday was treatment 17.  They picked Tracy up early and I had to catch up with them downstairs.  As they took Tracy in for her treatment, I headed back to my room for some breakfast.  After breakfast I showered and dressed and started attacking emails, as my emails had not been forwarded to me since Monday afternoon.  I ran to my new favorite bakery Dom’s and got donuts again for the ECT team meeting Wednesday afternoon.  I then ran out of time, as I was to meet my personal courier, Dante Burchi, for lunch and work from the office.  It is always good to see him we have a good time just wish it could always be longer. 

I again returned to Tracy’s room to find her doing her occupational therapy.  She now has 140° of mobility in her left arm and 130° in her right.  Occupational therapy mainly works with her arms and neck, while physical therapy works with her legs, standing and sitting, but include her arms and neck too.  Both groups are great, but we have our favorite.

Yesterday was also the start of bills from U of M.  I was told that they would be capped a certain level before we got here.  But according to the bills received, that doesn’t appear to be true.  So if you’re looking for something else to pray about for us, here you go.

I stayed and spoke with Tracy until about 8:30PM when she started dozing off.  I took it as my queue to do the same.  I headed to the room to sort through the mail and pay bills that I had brought back with me over the weekend.  I went to bed around 10:30 and slept until 9AM this morning.

I will close now and try to do the same again, however the Hoosiers are playing and that probably won’t happen.

God Bless and “Never Give Up… Never Ever Give Up!”

Rob