Smooth moving

I'm bloging from the old couch in the new pad, and we are pretty happy about it.

The move was a special event. On site we had the big Outdoor Living truck, the little Outdoor Living truck, the Ross family ute, Smithy's big yellow van and a fleet of back seats and boot spaces. Additionally Stacy and I were joined by 24 fired up friends and family for the move.

It was a thing of beauty, the only way to move house. Our first helper Richard was on the job from roughly 9:45am and the whole house was empty and locked up just prior to noon. It was great to be able to allocate people to single area or job and let them run the show. Stacy had some significantly more competent help with packing than I can provide, and we had the bodies on hand to get the oversized couch out and over the rail without too much drama.

The receiving end team worked wonders with maps of proposed furniture lay out, name tags and a great lunch spread ready when the worked shifted over to the new house. By the time Stacy and I arrived at our new home the lounge room was set up down to DVD's in the case, the books were quickly filling up the book case, the kitchen was set up and Mat and Al were still working on reconstructing the futon.

Potential loose moments from the day where when the neighbour's washing machine made it all the way to the ramp of the truck before being picked up as an impostor, and Graham's various attempts to climb out of the fairly challenging Crawford St driveway in the tricky ODL ute on a wet Sunday morning.

Overall it was a great effort and the whole operation including plenty of unpacking, ute and truck returns and lunch lasted around 5 hours. Thank you very much to everyone who got involved on the day, you helped take a lot of the pain out of what is usually a highly unenjoyable experience.

Pictures and videos to come once Stacy is happy with the final decorative touches.

Love to all.

Mike and Stacy

Moving and quality messages

In the last week we have received some excellent email and facebook messages. Thank you very much to those folks who have poured their thoughts and feelings out to us. It has been very touching, tears on the couch on more than one occasion this week. Thanks.

Now enough of that we need some boxes moved.

We just got the word today that we can get the keys this Saturday for our new pad. We are very excited.

So we have the Outdoor Living fleet scrambled and ready for Sunday morning. What we need now are bodies and brains.

If you are available we would appreciate your help on Sunday morning. The plan is to meet at our house - 15 Crawford St, Ashgrove at 10am. Load up the trucks and head over to the new pad. we might fire up some lunch/afternoon tea after that and then go ahead enjoy our life.

Give me the heads up if you are planning on getting involved. 0413 419 274, big_bad_sasquatch@hotmail.com

Cheers folks

Mike

"Nothing to say"

Today Stacy and I went out to lunch at a cafe.

Lunch is a good thing however it has changed over the last year. I wonder if you can imagine the experience of going to a public restaurant to enjoy a meal without the ability to walk to the table, pull your chair in, lift or hold the fork or wipe away the extra ranch dressing from the corner of your mouth. I don't think I can.

This is the reality of Stacy's dining experience. It is a daily display of courage that I am regularly impressed by.


Today at lunch we sat next to a couple who looked like they came out of a Sopranos style TV show set in Florida. Miami Sopranos - white pants on the man and woman, enough gold to get the job done and a relaxed authoritative air. Late 50s/early 60s, sunglasses, you with me?

After we had ordered and before our food had arrived Mr. Soprano Miami came over and jammed a crisp 50 into my hand. "Nothing to say, nothing to say" was what he said as he left my hand and the $50 note intertwined. "How are you sweetheart?" he said as he touched Stacy's shoulder. "Good thank you, thank you for that." Stacy replied."Enjoy your lunch" said the Aspley mafia man. They soon drove off giving us a jovial and friendly honk from their white Mercedes-Benz, it matched the pants nicely. 

Its was really good. Kindness and consideration, we can't get enough of it.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the experience was the contrast to our meal time interaction with Jeff in Reno (see 'Anybody can run on a fine day' from July). US Jeff talked to us for 20 plus minutes about his medical experiences, he spoke of healthy state of mind, affirmative language and a continued competitive attitude. It made us feel positive and supported. Aussie 'Aspley mafia' injected himself into our day for 20 seconds with a $50 note and a robust caring word. He made us feel positive and supported. Nothing to say, and yet so much communicated.

It is so wonderful being on the receiving end of peoples consideration and generosity. I have the feeling though that it is also excellent for people to experience the everyday courage that is Stacy eating lunch at a cafe. 


We hope all is well with our friends and family.

Mike and Stacy

Well hello

G'day folks

I'm going for bullet point format.

• Montana was excellent. Really good to spend time with Dave, Steph and plenty of friends.
• We are home from the states. It is great to be in our old apartment, we love this place.
• Our old apartment is getting old, too many stairs, not enough patio, you know how it is. 
• We have found a new place which we think will be great. It is flat with no steps from the garage into the house, and from the house out onto the patio and the yard. It is big with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a couple of living spaces. Plenty of space for visitors, check your passports people. 
• We are continuing with the home-care aspect of the treatment from the clinic. Stacy gets 5 or 6 injections a day from nurse Neild here, as well as a battery of oral medicine. The injections particularly are getting old quickly, however they are hopefully working away at resetting Stacy's immune system. 
• Times are getting harder emotionally for us however we are made of stern stuff.

Lots of love.

Mike and Stacy

Movin' on, movin' up.

It is clearly time to write with an update as people are beginning to send emails asking if things are ok. Excuse the tardiness.

We went to Reno.

Visited Lake Tahoe and Virginia City.

Liz came to stay.                                                                              

Kelly came to stay.

Shannon and Tawnya also came to visit however the camera must have been on charge that week. Sorry.

Stacy got a lot of injections, but kept on smiling, most of the time.

We received a lot of encouragement.

 

 

And finished up the treatment at the clinic a week or so ago.

As you would expect Stacy made as many good impressions at the clinic as she did facebook friends.

We are now back in Montana resting up and preparing for the trip home. Relaxing on the deck, hanging out with friends, rehabilitating small animals and driving fast cars. You know how it is.

We are heading home to Australia on the 11th of August - next week. We have mixed feelings about heading home as we will miss all the very important people over here in the states. I don't think we are able to sum up this trip easily and it will take some time for everything that has happened to download and make sense. We are hopeful that Stacy's condition will improve with the ongoing treatment as we wait along with all of you to see what happens.

Thanks again for all the love and support that has been sent our way, it makes a great difference to our days.

Now on to our next adventure.

'Anybody can run on a fine day'

Despite the set backs, regardless of the obstacles, and in the face of what almost feels like systemic, organised resistance Stacy and I have finally found a good non-chain breakfast restaurant. Oh yeah!

The Stone House Cafe is a top notch little restaurant with great food, relaxed garden style setting and apparently divinely inspired customers.

After having a great meal there last week, this morning we headed back out to the cafe with Deb for a Sunday morning breakfast. Excellent. After we sat down and ordered we noticed a couple of blokes who had finished their meal a few tables over. I noticed them because the waiter said "hang loose and enjoy the shade fellas". Sweet US vocab.

We ordered and enjoyed, relaxed, slowly savoured our meal and soaked up the excellent Sunday morning - being outside has become an appreciated novelty for us after nearly two months sitting in the clinic getting treated.

After we had finished eating one of the blokes from the 'hang loose' table made his way over to our table and asked if he could sit down. Jeff introduced himself and said that he noticed that Stacy is a bit ill at the moment. Jeff is a 50 year old Reno local who works as a photographer. He has eyeglasses and likes to wear a baseball hat on his Sunday morning.

While talking to Jeff we found out that he had Lyme disease and ten years ago he experienced a range of symptoms similar to Stacy's current condition. He said that he saw us walk in and it reminded him of the way he used to walk around. He lost his voice and his ability to swallow effectively at the height of his symptoms.

This morning Jeff was a healthy looking and highly functioning breakfast eating human. He really wanted to come over and tell Stacy that she needs to continue fighting, believing and participating in her treatment. She can get her solution and she can be healthy again. Jeff was a marathon runner and a firefighter and he said during his illness his mantra became that "anybody can run on a fine day". I took this to mean that its the people who keep running when the wind blows up and the rain sets in who make a difference in the world. Jeff told Stacy that its not firemen who follow their training and fight fires who are heroes, its Stacy who keeps battling everyday, and insists on living her life and eating her cafe breakfast who is a hero.

It really was a divine experience for us. We are very grateful to Jeff for coming over and injecting himself and his story into our day.

As we were walking back to the car Stacy said to me "Maybe that was God saying shut up and start believing". Meeting Jeff was a great influence on Stacy and gave a real boost to all of us as we move towards the next phase of our treatment.

Great breakfast. Loved it. Independent restaurants people, the way forward.

Thanks for all the love,

Mike and Stacy

Bailing out, digging deep, shaping up, battling on, pushing through and getting it together

G'day out there in Stacy land.

I hope all is well with you at the moment.

This week we are in Reno, Nevada. Not surprised are you, well I guess we aren't either. As I write we are at the end of our 7th week here in Reno attending the Sierra Integrative Medical Center. We will complete this week of treatment and then decide how much of next week we will spend down here. Yesterday we thought it would only be a couple of days of next week however after today we may be looking at the whole week. The situation in regards to duration of treatment has been in flux for the last month or so.

Today was a rough day, however that isn't totally representative of our time here. Whilst the overall experience has been tough most of the days themselves haven't been overly challenging.

Stacy's physical condition:
Her blood seems to be much healthier, less immune hyperactivity, less dehydration and oxidative damage (related to chemicals in her body) to her red blood cells. Better liver function, however there is more improvement needed with this. Her allergic reactions seem to be much less active as well. Her recent vital capacity (lung function) test seemed to show that she is stable in this area - we will take stable, stable is just fine at the moment.

Her speech and total body motor control seem to be continuing to progress in line with the last 18 months. It is hard for us to assess this really well, however we feel like most movement tasks are harder now than they were when we left home in May.

Stacy's mental and emotional condition:
I'm just a young man with a less than extensive experience in the world. Stacy is by far the bravest and toughest nut that I have met. She finds herself in an intensely painful and scary situation and yet she is constantly trying to protect the rest of us around her from the pain and fear. She fights much of the mental and emotional battle by herself. Stacy has never been shy to ask for help and is keen to share the load of the experience however she is constantly aware of protecting others as well.

On Monday she encouraged me to buy a piece of pizza for a homeless man who she has seen wondering the streets of Reno. I was quite resistant to the idea though shyness or fear or something. I did however end up getting the pizza slice and drove over, found the man and gave him the dinner. He was very happy and appreciative. It really was a divine moment. Impossible to recapture through description, it was intensely emotional for both of us.

Stacy is still a wonderful person despite the arduous nature of your life at the moment.

The challenge is harder now than it ever has been. We will continue to face it every day. We are hopeful for the next few months.

Stacy loves you all and hopes you are all making the most of your days. Send her some love in the comments here or on facebook or however you normally keep in touch.

Lots of love

Mike