Chicago, isn’t that elevator music anyway?

Let me jump right in……

A little housecleaning first.  Thanks to all that have joined this blog the last few days. We pulled up the stats and its mind boggling to us. Almost 500 visits a day and a thousand views is way more than we could’ve ever thought.  And the people that keep following this we can’t thank enough. I’ve heard army and prayer warriors but I think this is like a wave. No matter what your beliefs are everyone is coming together and that’s a really cool thing. I know it means a lot to Elizabeth and me as well. Let’s keep riding the wave to the beach and we’ll all raise a toast at the end. And those across the world, leave me a message. We have views from Australia, Columbia, Japan, Germany, let us know because that’s just the best and want to know who you are. Now onto the news.

After three days of staring at the walls of Baptist South, we finally moved to Mayo Clinic. We hoped we wouldn’t have to spend the weekend there but the bilirubin levels were still elevated. So today the doctor came in about 8am and said, yeah, best if we just move you hospital to hospital. We made contact with Rich Joesph (our contact at Mayo who obviously has a ton of pull) and he sent some emails and boom, around noon, lets roll. Well not quite lets roll. There was insurance hold ups, nothing big. Just things that happen. From a personal slant, it was cool to get fired up about something. This “peace and love” Bob Reeves was wearing a little thin anyway. But we got everything done and we were on the way. It was great seeing a little fire back in Elizabeth’s eyes. I’m not going to kid you, we were a little tired after last night. I posted it on Facebook but I’ll say it here. We have tickets to U2 in June. We were sitting there and feeling a little down on ourselves and Elizabeth said “We should probably get rid of the tickets”.

No, no we are not

We are going to that show. It’s in June.  By that time we will have kicked the crap out of cancer and Bono will be singing about you. Nope, not having it

I’m not sure what it was but after Dr Comb left the room this morning there was a little spark in her. One of those things that after 20 years you pick up on. An electricity in the room. It got me charged up. A look of “lets get this this thing going, lets kick some ass”. So we moved to Mayo, where upon the first doctor coming in, was a HUGE difference. We talked for a bit and I can’t speak for Elizabeth but I got the feeling, yeah, this is a little crazy but dude, we’re Mayo Clinic. We’ve seen worse. I left feeling like things were going to get done quick, fast, and in a hurry. We start at around 5am tomorrow and I feel things will escalate quickly.

I’d be remiss though to not say Baptist wasn’t great (well except for Dr. Mumbles, who I would kill here but I’m riding a good wave so we’ll give him a pass. The nurses were top notch. Everyone on the third floor from the nurses (there’s too many to name but they were all angels and if they read this, there’s a special place in my heart for all of them) to the housekeeping and food staff. There was one nurse, Agai, little Phillipino woman, the other night that came in and touched Elizabeth’s head, and asked if she could pray over it. I’m not sure what she said but that’s the level of emotional caring we got.  They genuinely cared about her.  And me as well. The nurse, Emily, when I came up on fire after not receiving Elizabeth’s records gave me a look of, yeah, calm down, I got this. And she did. I cant say enough about them. The biscuits downstairs for breakfast I can’t say were as good. A little over cooked, hard and stale but were saved by the sausage gravy. However the lunch and dinner choices were a bit better. The open face roast beef sandwich was delightful with a standard brown gravy that masked the subtleties of the beef but was a rated seven fingers licked out of ten. The baked fish over rice pilaf was robust with something. I’m not sure what but robust none the less. 8 fingers. But the coup de gras was the turkey with roasted red potatoes and steamed spinach that was delivered to room (not by Elizabeth’s request, we shut it off at lunch). Elizabeth couldn’t eat so we couldn’t let it go to waste. The roasted potatoes were finely seasoned and the spinach could’ve been salted, but the carved turkey, my belly is still giving it a standing ovation. All ten fingers licked.

But when I was leaving I went to the elevator. Happy to be going to a different/better place for treatment I was looking forward to the days ahead. Until i get into the elevator. It was elevator music. But I recognized the song. “You’re the Inspiration” by Chicago. They made it into elevator music. Wasn’t it already? It reminded me of the time of working at Publix and listening to the old Muzak and the one time (and I swear they played it and if they’re still alive, there’s several ex-front service professionals, or as the masses call them, bagboys) they played “stairway to heaven”. Or “light my fire” by the doors was always a real toe tapper. But man, Chicago is not a reach from their actual songs and elevator music. Now it’s stuck in my head. Thanks. Anyway, 5am comes early and its late, so with that, keep the faith, keep riding the wave and spread the love. Love you guys and blog at you soon, Peace.