Help me make Todd's Bucket List happen!

One of my more immediate goals in life is to help Todd complete his Bucket List. Below is his original entry posted about his interests.  Can anyone help me with any of these? (The Habitat for Humanity House might have to wait a bit until his health improves a bit). 

Laura and I saw the movie Bucket List on Sunday. What an awesome movie. It really made me think about life and my bucket list. I was thinking what would I put on my list. I came up with a few.  They are not in any particular order. Just put them down as I thought of them. I will hopefully be adding to and marking off the list. Not sure how many I can accomplish, but it sure would be fun.

1). Make my wife laugh at least once a day.

2). Meet Billy Graham.

3). Find folks who can not run and run for them

4) Be on the sidelines at the Swamp for a Florida Gator’s football game.

5). Have a reunion with my college roommates.

6). Bring more awareness to cancer and Parkinson.

7) Run in the New York Marathon.

8). Run 50 miles in one day.

9). Hang out with ultramarathon man Dean Karnazes.

10). Hang out with fellow survivor Lance Armstrong.

11). Hang out with fellow Parkinson’s dude  Michael J. Fox. 

12). Hang out with Pastor Francis Chan.

13). Take an Alaskan cruise with my wife.

14). Sight see across the U.S with my wife.

15). Help build a house with Habitat for Humanity. 

16). Hang out with Bono.

Some things I can mark off my list.

1). Complete a full-marathon. Done on 3/2/08 in Sarasota, FL.

2). Sky Dive. Done on 2/24/08 in Clewiston, FL.  

3). Met Team Hoyt in 2005.

http://geneticfreak.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/bucket-list/

Good Samaritan Hospital - aka 2nd home

Well as of March 20, Todd has been admitted to Good Samaritan Hospital. During the week, he was not feeling well and coughing. Wednesday his color was not good. And Thursday / Friday he only made it to work for 3 hours (Friday only).

So Friday night we decide that a visit to the emergency room was in order. Fortunately, his amazing oncologist was on call and registered us ahead. We were sitting in the waiting room for 10 minutes before a nurse came out of the ER to greet Todd by name and said she has our records and will be with us shortly.

We were through the ER with quality care and shuttled to a private room quite peacefully. Five days later, his breathing did not show enough improvement so the doctors decided on Plasma Exchange! What is that, you say? Well it was new to me as of Saturday. Within four hours of scheduling the process, a surgeon was in to perform minor surgery inserting a catheter in Todd's neck (near the jugular vein). Todd looks like a robot or as he says RoboCop with wires and tubes hanging out his neck onto his chest. Needless to say, I removed myself from the room during that minor procedure. This is a temporary catheter for the 5-day treatment and will be removed after completion of this Plasma Exchange.

So on top of his Parkinson diagnoses, he has now discovered he has Myasthenia Gravis and experienced a Myasthenic relapse - almost losing his ability to breath!

So the first day of Plasma Exchange was Wednesday, March 25. The specialty nurses wheel in all of this traveling equipment into his room. The machine reminded me of the look and size of an old fashioned telephone operator's station with all the phone lines crossing and connecting in different locations. Two tubes connected to my sweetheart - 1st on was the exporting tube withdrawing his blood and plasma; 2nd one was the importing tube that brings back Todd's blood into his body after being cleansed and inserting synthetic plasma. It was a surreal experience to see the love of my life sitting calmly through this process.

The process was an hour and a half and absolutely painless. He felt groggy but fine after it was complete. His sense of humor was fully in tact. He teases the nurses that he planned to play basketball with his god son in the room later on that evening after they asked him not to overexert himself. All is well with my sweetheart. He is on the road to recovery. I can't wait to have him back in my daily life to return to our usual routines.

He will be in the hospital 12 -13 days when the 5-day Plasma exchange is complete. Continue to pray for Todd's strength and full recovery with God's blessing.

Most Spectacular Valentines!

So bragging is not really very humbling, is it?  Well, then maybe I should share my emotional sentiment with you by expressing my feelings of the best Valentine of all times!

So those that know me, know I am a fairly simple person, not too concerned about fashion and pretty conservative.  Some have gone so far to call me a "goodie-two-shoes" or that I need to loosen up a bit.  I get that response pretty regulary over the past 9 and a half years.  And, you know what, I kinda like it.  Because some 10 to 25 year ago, I was the opposite of these things. 

Thus, my best Valentines EVER!  

I have to thank God now and always for providing my prince in a life of kissing so many toads. I deserve so much misfortune in life for all of the horrible, selfish, and cold decisions I have made prior to yeilding my life fully to God.  God saw me when I chose to be an unfortunate and unsuccessful sinlge person for the first 30 years of my life.  Here, today, at age 40, I daily reap the benefits of God's forgiving grace and love - through the best Valentines EVER!   

So did you really have to guess where this was going up to this point?  Yes, here I go again and yes, I mean every word! Todd Shoemaker is my true love.  If it were up to my pattern of poor choices, 10 years ago, I would have messed up my chances of landing such an amazing, decent, sexy man!  God looked beyond my faults and past failures and allowed Todd and I to fall in love. Today, I value and cherish this rare and unique love I have and pray daily that never fall from God's grace to ever lose him.

All my life, instability was the only constant. Today my constant is God's love and grace through the love of my husband. Todd's love has been the most rewarding and ENTERTAINING experience of my life. And for that - I am continually thankful to have the MOST AWESOME Valentine EVER!