Sorry all for not updating the blog the past few weeks, but the
day Rick completed the radiation and chemo therapy, we went on a trip up to the
mountains. Rick starting feeling really bad that day, we thought maybe it was
motion sickness associated with the drive and curves of the mountains. But after
we returned it did not improve but seemed to get worst. So the past weeks it
has been hectic working at the office and at home since he has not been up to helping
much. I never realized how much we do together. We all made one trip over to
Stuart VA to the Wood Brothers Racing shop on Friday-August 30th,
something that Rick and brother-in law Randy Stone enjoyed very much.
For those that are not very familiar with NASCAR, some facts
are that 20 of NASCAR’S Greatest Drivers have
driven for Wood Brothers Racing. That list includes Curtis Turner, Tiny Lund,
Fireball Roberts, Bob Welborn, Dale Jarrett, A.J. Foyt, Glen Wood, Buddy Baker,
Marvin Panch, Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Ned Jarrett, Fred Lorenzen,
David Pearson, Joe Weatherly, Ralph Earnhardt, Neil Bonnett, Ricky Rudd, Mark
Martin, and Bill Elliott.
Wood Brothers Racing scored
their 98th victory, winning the Daytona 500 with rookie sensation, Trevor Bayne. Wood Brothers have now won in seven
decades. Len Wood (Glenn’s son) was there that day and sadly had just
missed Glenn who makes a daily visit to the museum took a lot of time talking to
us.
Rick had to spend the rest of the trip at the house, which
was not all bad since the house itself sits on a beautiful mountain top on the
Blue Ridge Parkway with views that would make any real estate agent repeat over
and over “Location, Location, Location”. So if you are going to be feeling bad, well at
least it is peaceful with beautiful scenery. Overall we enjoyed getting away
for a few days along with a good time with my sister Teresa and her family.
Unfortunately since August 29th Rick has felt
very bad. The pain is tolerable, just being nauseated and dealing with not
being able to keep any food down hardly at all. He continues to lose weight but
the past few days it has been some better since the doctor has him back on the
Zofran (chemo anti-nausea med) versus the normal nausea medicine as we would
take. He started that again last night and we go back over tomorrow to Duke to
get meds and quick visit. We have October 10th as the date we go
over to get new scans, labs and spend the day going over the surgery with the
surgical teams. Since the mass abuts to the portal vein and superior mesenteric
vein there will be a vascular surgical team in to take over to redirect and
reconstruct the necessary veins and arteries once they are in and see better
than the scan allows. The surgery we have been told can be eight to twelve
hours and if the veins are involved longer. That day on the 10th we
should get the surgery date which should be late Oct to early Nov.
Any of you that work or have worked at the State know they
have a Voluntary Shared Leave (VSL) program which I think is really great. It
is not a perfect process we found out, especially outside of your division, example
Rick is under NC Department of Public Safety and many over at Murdoch or
Central Regional that are under DHHS have had some difficulty being able to
donate to VSL for Rick. It is a wonderful program and if anyone is interested
in VSL donation you can contact Ida Diaz the VSL Benefits Coordinator at
919-716-3684 or at ida.diaz@ncdps.gov
for assistance if your area cannot help you. It is overwhelming the wonderful
generosity of several that have donated time to him already. We are very thankful
and words here do not begin to express how grateful we are.
Rick wants to be sure to let all know that although he has
not been up to many visitors he is hopeful that this break will have him in
shape to enjoy more of them very soon. Thank you all for the cards, calls, visits and prayers!
Happy Fall greetings to all J
No comments:
Post a Comment