Moving, Healing, and Times of Transition

            

We have a spreadsheet for this season. The final column is for the dog. When I first made the spreadsheet, she wasn’t included. Then the plans were made to pack, travel, and move. Everything made sense until we asked about the dog’s whereabouts.

I admit it is nice for the confusion to be about a dog. It’s been a dogged two years, yet our family is intact; our home is selling; the children are registered for schools; I get to keep my job; and Lindsay has an incredible opportunity on the horizon. But the real news is some we have been waiting for since February.

Madeline had her MRI and CAT scan early in the morning last Thursday. A few hours later the results were available in MyChart. Lindsay called to read it to me. She hadn’t yet read it herself, so we were bracing to hear the words for the first time together. I was so anxious and even as positive words laced the opening lines, I was waiting for the “but.”

The report communicated several things:

1. Decreased cervical syrinx

2. Decreased kinking of the anterior medulla

3. Degree of platybasia and basillar invagination improved.

We know just enough neuro-speak to be dangerous; however, we read these three notes as good news. Even so, we were worried something might be noted that was beyond our comprehension. 

We do not meet with Dr. Brockmeyer for a few weeks, and we needed understanding now, so Lindsay called Madeline’s Gville neurosurgeon for a measure of clarity. He called us back on the way to family dinner. Madeline answered the call on the car speaker system, and it was pure joy to hear Dr. Troupe and Madeline reconnect. He was impressed by the images, but more impressed by her attitude and sense of health. 

So we leave this two year journey in SC and return to Michigan with a measure of health and hope. This will forever be an important chapter in our lives, and we are so grateful for the Gville medical community and our friends. We are so grateful to God in this season. We have learned so much, and there remains much to integrate into our future learning. To quote Lindsay, “no attitude, just gratitude.”

The transition begins (to be honest, it seems like we have been in transition since June 2021, so it is more apt to say the transition continues). The spreadsheet tells each of us where to be over the next 30 days, but the inner energy will be beyond the spreadsheet. We will have work to do come the fall to remain connected. The sense of certainty in the spreadsheet gives us permission to live in the uncertainty and to ride the roller coaster of the transition. 

Thank you to the many readers of the blog - your prayers and friendship have buoyed our spirits over the past two years.