Well the paperwork is in to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester
Minnesota and the insurance company has approved us to go! Now we wait. I know, all in God’s timing. I just wish he wore a watch and it was on the
same time zone as mine!
I forgot to mention in the last blog that we had a visit
from our non-legally adopted daughter Kaity Marko on her way to Chicago. It was nice to see her and have her spend the
afternoon with us. She is headed to
Africa this summer for six months as missionary.
Saturday was a day of sleep for Tracy. I felt sorry for Val and Janice who had come
in from out of town to visit, as Tracy was so out of it. I am sure going back to the 4mg a day of
Ativan was the reason for her sleepiness.
But we all made the best of it.
We had other visitors Saturday too, Deann Rohloff, and Keith and Cassie
Immink came by too. I think there were 7
of us in Tracy’s room at one time and a nurse or two too! Janice and Val gave Tracy a manicure and a
late night pedicure. We also sneaked in
dinner at The Original Cottage Inn Restaurant.
Boy is that some good pizza! The
company was even better!
I think Janice and Val got maybe two hours of sleep Sunday
morning before they left. Val had a
5:45AM flight, so Janice and her left around 4AM, believe it or not I also was
awake. I thought about getting up to say
goodbye to them, but decided I had better just stay in bed and try to get some
more sleep myself. But at 5AM I hadn’t
gone back to sleep so I took another sleeping pill and slept until 8:30. By the time I had eaten and showered they
both were home already, Janice in Cincinnati and Val in Houston.
Tracy slept the rest of the morning and I stayed with her
and read some. Dr. Paretti loaned me the
book Doctors Mayo, it is about Dr. Mayo, who by the way, graduated from the
University of Michigan. Tracy woke up in
the afternoon and was very talkative. I
really enjoyed speaking with her, it was a lot of nonsense, but we were
talking. She is getting her voice back
and it is much easier to understand her.
I asked a lot of questions and for the most part she responded to them,
sometimes appropriately, sometimes not.
I just wished she had been that way while Janice and Val were here.
I missed having Drew here this last weekend as he was away
at our Church’s youth winter retreat.
He had a great time! It was the
first time I had missed the winter retreat in the past six years. But they brought it to me, as I received a
phone call about 1:30PM asking if they could put me on speakerphone and hear a
bit of our journey and pray for our family.
It was AWESOME. Our God is
Good! All the Time!!
Monday morning came and Dr. Paretti sent off the first set
of paperwork to start the communication with the Mayo Clinic. It was also the last day for Dr. Paretti to
attend to Trace. I will miss him.
It was another good day for Tracy as she was again very
talkative and attentive to me. I began
to wonder if Mayo was really necessary or not?
The conversations were much the same as Sunday again. But I loved hearing her and seeing her facial
expressions and listening to her laughter.
Debbie Barlow came out late in the morning and spent about
an hour or so. Then Drew and his
girlfriend Taylor Tralka showed up around noon and we went to lunch at guess
where? Angelo’s! They spent sometime with Tracy and did some
of their homework together in the cafeteria.
I took them to dinner and sent them on their way around 9PM.
I slept so, so on Monday night. When I called early Tuesday morning the night
nurse said that Tracy had slept well and was still asleep. So I went back to sleep myself until around
8:30AM.
After I got up I did some work, and paid some bills and got
over to Tracy’s room around 11AM. When I
got there she smiled at me and kissed me but something wasn’t right. She seemed really tired and somewhat
sad. I asked her if she felt ok and she
said “so, so”. Impressive with response,
but concerning because I could see she wasn’t feeling well. She was very lethargic and sleepy. About 4PM a nurse’s aide came to take Trace’s
vitals and it was evident that she wasn’t feeling well. High blood pressure, high heart rate and a
high fever were present.
Our new doctor, Dr. Nichani was paged and came immediately
and ordered some different antibiotics and increased her fluids and stopped her
tube feeding. It was assumed that the
bolus feedings were probably the cause of the increased heart rate and high
blood pressure. But they were not sure
what was causing the fever. There was
some concern that it could be an infection from her PICC line, which was pulled
and replaced again on Monday.
By the time I headed back to the room everything was good
except she was running a low-grade fever.
I slept pretty good Tuesday night just woke up early again,
so I called to see how Tracy was and found out that she had slept really well
and was still asleep. So I took some
cold medicine and set my alarm for 8:30AM.
After breakfast I made a few phone calls and did some more
work and headed over around 11AM to find Tracy in really good spirits and Dr.
Nichani in the room. He had said that he
had heard from Priority Health and that we were cleared to go to the Mayo
Clinic! Now we had to wait to hear back
from Mayo.
Here is where more prayers are needed. Thursday night is Drew’s induction into the
National Honor Society, something Tracy has pressed him about since I think he
was 2 years old! I am so sad that she
cannot be there to see him and I am so concerned that once Mayo says it’s a go,
we leave immediately. And if it is
Thursday, what do I do?
I am concerned, as I do not know how we are going to get
there. I do know that Tracy will go by
ambulance, not by air. So do I ride with
her, like I did from Beaumont or do I drive myself? I was told that I would not be able to keep
up with ambulance; I guess they would be speeding and I wouldn’t be able
too? I don’t even know if a car would be
needed once I am there. It appears that
there are plenty of hospitals around the hospital but only one that would be
similar to the Med Inn, where I am staying now.
There are just so many unknowns, huh, Trust and Obey, because there’s
really is no other way!
It could also end up that we don’t even go to Mayo and stay
here with Mayo consulting the doctors here, or God forbid they don’t accept us.
It was really appropriate that today I read to Tracy about
how “God’s Promises are an assurance God gives his people so they can walk by
Faith while they wait for him to work.” Read
that again will you? What comfort.
Tracy and I had a candle light time (dinner for me) with the
few good roses left from Valentines Day.
It was nice, just the two of us.
She is resting comfortably and I am thinking of closing and
heading to my room.
If anyone know any answers to my concerns or can shed some
light on what to expect from our forth-coming Mayo visit, please email me at rbowden@quality-hardware.com .
God Bless and “Never Give Up… Never Ever Give Up!”
Rob
As I went to post this blog I checked my email and was
completely overwhelmed.
Dear Friends of Tracy,
Martha and I would like to invite you to join us in a 9
day rosary novena for Tracy Bowden, starting this Thursday, February 23rd and
finishing Friday, March 2nd. We will meet 9:00 - 9:30 PM at the Marian
chapel inside St. Anastasia church (4571 John R, Troy).
For our non-Catholic friends, the tradition of praying a
novena for a special intention like the recovery of Tracy is modeled after the
nine days that the apostles and Mary gathered in the upper room after the
ascension of Jesus as they prayerfully waited for the coming of the Holy
Spirit. For this novena, we have been inspired by this weekend's Gospel reading
of the healing of the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12) where Jesus healed the paralytic
because of the faith of his friends. We will start the novena with that reading
from Mark, then pray the rosary with appropriate Mystery for that day.
If you are like us and don't have all the special prayers
of the rosary memorized - no worries! We will provide handouts with all the
prayers. Or, if you like, simply join us in silent prayer for Tracy. If you
can't be there in person, please join us in prayer from wherever you are.
Please forward this to anyone else who knows the Bowdens
and would want to join us. Feel free to bring your kids (ours will be there).
If you have any questions, please call (248-879-2357) or send a note.
Let's storm the gates of Heaven together for Tracy!
John and Martha Pale
God willing I too will be attending as I will be home to
celebrate Drew’s induction to the National Honor Society.
John and Martha I can’t thank you enough!
Again, God Bless and “Never Give Up… Never Ever Give Up!”
Rob
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