Speedy update.

Hello friends and family. Mike on the computer for an update.

Its a bit late at night for cheekiness and there are many topics to cover so I apologise in advance for the lack of creative prose. The plan is to dedicate full posts to the following, however in the interim here is what has been going on.

Great Falls was pretty good. It was a higher intensity week then we are used to back in Brisbane due to the large number of people that we wanted to spend time with during the week. Consequently it was both very enjoyable and quite tiring. I think by the time we left for Nevada we were more tired than when we arrived after our 26 hour trip from Australia.

Thanks very much for all the folks who traveled to come and see us. We enjoyed all the meals, rides, chats, babies and quiet times on the couch.

The fundraiser held on the 21st of May was a major event. I'm hesitant to define it by the number of people who came, amount of donated items, hours of preparation and funds raised as these amounts don't add up to the positive feeling and love that Stacy and I experienced from the event. It was a great success and we are very thankful to everyone who contributed.

Yesterday we flew down to Reno from Great Falls via Seattle. It was a pretty good trip, I think the last big trip was still in our memory so this little one didn't seem too bad. We have our rental car, we are in our hotel suite (both are good) and we are beginning to get our bearings in Reno. We arrived in at the hotel around 10:30pm and were up at 6am to make our first appointment at the clinic.

Today we spent our day at the Sierra Integrated Medical Center. Our description of the day would have been fairly different depending on when you asked us. It feels a little unfair and inaccurate to report my feelings about the day and the clinic now as during the day I felt both more positive and more negative at different times about the whole thing. You can consider that as you read the following.

I don't think we know much more about the big picture of our situation now than we did 24 hours ago. We have more information about some of the details however in terms of knowing how long we will be here, how likely we are to see a positive response for Stacy, what is going on inside Stacy's body we are still pretty much in the dark.

Today we drew a lot of blood and organised a really broad series of tests for that blood. Toxicity, chemical levels, lingering immunisation information, parasite existence, liver function, etc, etc. We did an evaluation of the energetic levels of Stacy's internal organs using key points (some word starting with 'M' should be here) on her hands and feet. We had a long consultation with the big wig Dr. Bruce Fong, D.O. H.M.D. Finally Stacy started some treatment which is standard for all patients at the center - an hour and half drip fluid that is designed to cleans the liver, and 2 injections that do some other stuff.

The plan at the center is to investigate what is happening in Stacy's body systems, to restore balance to her lymphatic, endocrine and immune systems and then see if in that process some negative factor that is damaging her body is removed. A bit of swinging in the dark really however with a condition in which the cause is unknown I guess there aren't many other options.

We are back in tomorrow for some more transfusions and injections.

Reno the town is full of restaurants, casinos and hotels, it is not overly pretty. It is however in a majestic setting. There are two very large snow covered peaks rearing up into the clouds close to town. Apparently the lifts only closed a couple of weeks ago and some people are still hiking up and skiing down, hectic.

We have some photos and plenty more stories to come. Sorry for the limited updates, Stace and I were saying tonight that just getting through the days are using up a lot of energy. We have had 3 pretty big days though - last day in GF, traveling, first day at the clinic. I hope that we will get into a routine soon. Liz does arrive in 2 days for the weekend.

Thanks very much for all the facebook, email, phone and in person love community. It has been great, stand by for a post about one such communication that blew us away - paper airplanes and everything (i'll let the photos do the talking on that one).

We love you.

Mike

We made it!

After 25 hours on the 'road' from Brisbane through LA, Salt Lake City, Great falls we made it to Chili's restaurant, and found ourselves set up with margaritas and meals the size of our heads. U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A.

Thanks very much to everyone who has sent us best wishes for our travels, it was nice to know so many people were thinking of and praying for us.

Stacy travelled really well given the challenges involved. She even had to be shipped off like cargo on a 2 wheel trolley/dolly type number. If we had the face mask it would have been a sweet Hanibal Lecter moment.

We slept for almost 14 hours last night with a 4am wide awake hour in the middle. Today Stacy is getting around pretty well and we are happy with her energy levels. It is beautiful here in the Great Falls early summer. We are looking forward to quite a few long and lazy evenings on the freshly renovated back deck.

Elk burgers and Ceasars for dinner tonight - yeah.

Lots of love to our extended family.

Mike

What is going on.

G'day all, Mike here guest posting.

I'm here with a general update and Stacy will be back with more from the tear jerking and inspiration collection soon. She gets all the good jobs.

Righto so the matriarch, the big momma, the lady in the red hair, Debi Frey has been in town for the last 4 weeks. It has been very good to have Deb on board helping out around the house and I'd say we are all in fairly good emotional condition. That might be speaking a bit out of line, however I'm going to keep a positive frame of mind on this one.

We are heading over to the states on the 16th of May (two days time) and we think the trip will be both very tiring and also fairly enjoyable. It will be a mixed trip with a visit to Montana to spend some time with family and friends, quickly followed by some time in Reno, Nevada at an alternative medicine clinic.

Many of the doctors and health professionals are quite concerned about us making this trip to the states on the grounds that Stacy's condition is progressing and she is moving into a stage where she will require regular assessment of her breathing and swallowing function. The reality is that if this trip was purely of a social nature we would probably have decided against it as it does pose a risk to Stacy's overall health.

The situation is though that we feel the need to do some further investigation into the treatment of Stacy's condition. As such we are taking the risk of accelerating the progress of Stacy's decline against the potential good news we may find at this clinic in Nevada. Details about the clinic can be found at http://www.sierraintegrative.com/

Stacy's incredible ability to synthesise frightening new information about her own mortality into her world view in order to make major life decisions is astounding. It took her around 26 hours to incorporate the information that a trip to the States for more than a month could be very dangerous to her health into her understanding of the world. She then considered the situation she found herself in, balanced the risks and made her decision. The brilliance of this is that once the decision was made we were back to enjoying our evening and living our life.

Sometimes you make a decision and then continue to remake the same decision in the following days and weeks. This keeps you in a state of flux that inhibits your ability to live your life and enjoy the world. Stacy and I have learned how to make life changing decisions and then leave those decisions made so we can go out and enjoy an iced coffee in all its creamy deliciousness.

"Mike I've worked it out, I can either stay here and die, or I can go over there and try.

Do you know what movies are on tonight?"

So we are coming over to the states and we'll see what comes of it. One thing that we know will come of our trip to the states is a Montana sized fund-raiser: http://stacyneildbenefit.eikonproductions.com/

Team Stacy North America branch have been working overtime and it seems to us that a huge event is the direct result. We aren't really sure what will be involved with this benefit night, however we do know that Tawnya did her TV interview today, and that through the class of 2000 Great Falls High 10 year reunion facebook page the news of the benefit has gone viral - go bison.

Ok, enough out of me. I'm sure Stacy will be back here soon to share some insight about the beauty of life or something. She's sitting next to me reading some Steven King short stories so I'll be interested to see how she works that in with her blog theme of positive thinking and floating in oceans of faith while dreaming about running.

Keep the email love coming, we are both regularly buoyed by the beauty and eloquence of our friends and family. 

Love

Mike