A Room With a View

Well, we made it safely down to Vandy. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers during the move. Mike was transported from St. Mary's and Mom and Melisa were ambulance chasers, following him turn by turn. I decided to come on down and join the festivities too. Thanks to Momma Sherry for staying at my house and taking care of my 2 wildcats while My Mike works today.

Nashville, and Vanderbilt in particular, is massive. We are still trying to navigate the city and the medical campus. Thankfully we have found everything we have needed thus far. Upon entering the room, I wish you could have seen the look on Melisa's face! The room is, well, sub par to say the least. We were used to the large rooms, beautiful hardwood floors and flat screen TVs at St. Mary's. Here...not so much. Mom equated the room to that of an airplane while Melisa says she feels like she walked on the set of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." HA! HA! For us girly girls, the room is harder on us than it is on Mikey. It doesn't bother him in the least. He says, "It's a Man's room!"...totally functional with zero frills. I can hear my brother-in-law, Chris's voice saying, "Just get 'er done!", which is really why we are here. I will say the view is incredible. He is on the 11th floor and has a penthouse view of downtown Nashville, which has a beautiful skyline. I guess we will sacrifice some homey comforts in order for him to receive very best care. We are reminded over and over that we have come to the right place.

We were able to speak with his oncologist, Dr. Stein this morning. From the time we got here until this morning, each person who came into the room felt the need to preface Dr. Stein. Again and again we were told, "He's short on niceties but he's the best" or "He's a fantastic doctor but he's not real sweet." We were a little unsure of this meeting this morning but after meeting him I think we are all in concurrence that we LOVE him. I guess everyone has different personalities and respond differently to others but Mike's nature and Stein's nature seem to gel pretty well, which is a definite blessing. We also like our resident on the floor, Dr. English. He is young and is pretty cool.

Dr. Stein went over Mikey's treatment plan with us. He will begin chemotherapy today. For the next 7 straight days he will receive a certain type of chemo. drug via IV bag drip. Also for today, tomorrow, and Saturday he will receive a different chemo. drug. It will also be administered via IV but it requires a nurse to physically insert it in his IV. The the following week he will be able to rest while his body is hard at work replacing its cells. In two weeks from now, he will have another bone marrow biopsy, which hopefully will show "clear cells". Dr. Stein said he fully expects it to be clear. Then either the 3rd or 4th week he will be able to go home for a while. Should it not be clear, he will take another round of the 7 & 3 chemo. I wish I could provide more specifics on his treatment but a lot of the verbiage was over my head. I kept wishing that my personal "resident medical advisor", my sister-in-law Julie, were here to take in all of the medical terminology. She would know what all of that means!

Some of you have asked about going ahead and sending some food cards down to M&M. Over on the right hand side of the blog I have posted some restaurants that are both in the hospital as well as walking distance from the medical campus. I think that's a great idea and would be beneficial to them. Please just send them to our P.O. box listed on the side as well.

I want to say thank you again for all of your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes. They mean everything to us! One terrific story is our super-sweet Aunt Beanie has been undoubtedly been hard at work, relentlessly praying for Mikey. (Thanks Auntie Bean Baby!) She received her sign yesterday, a feather, and was very moved by the experience! We are so very thankful to hear these stories as they are even further reminders that our Lord is totally in this.

If you will, and are comfortable doing so, please pray today. Please pray that each and every person who comes into contact with Mike is guided by the Lord. Please pray that they are able to use the knowledge they are given to provide the absolute best care for Mike. Please pray for Mike and that his body is healed by this 1st round of chemotherapy and that he is able to return to function. Please ask that the Lord continue to lift up M&M's spirits and provide the comfort that only He can.

Thanks for everything everyone! More to come...

Rach