Home now for one week and slowly on the mend. Recovery from the surgery has progressed nicely but that trigeminal nerve is really, really mad that Dr. Kassam and his team snaked their way into its hiding place deep in my skull to disturb it. It might take some time before it settles down and before we know more about what type of amyloid it is and what that means for the future.
I want to take the balance of this last message to thank the many, many people who have shown extraordinary kindness to me. The congregations of St. John's in Ithaca and St. Mark's in Penn Yan (where Denise was previously the rector before taking a position with the diocese) and the Diocesan staff of the Episcopal Diocese in Rochester have all sent powerful prayers my way. Friends who have identified themselves on the blog have been a wonderful source of support for me. I have so enjoyed opening up the blog and finding posts from people I know far and wide, old friends in Pittsburgh who must have been as surprised as me to find out I was there, and friends I have made across the country in my work at Cornell University and the national organization EDUCAUSE: thank you! I also want to recognize how events such as this one has the wonderful effect of bringing people closer. Those friends who offered interpretation of the dream have given me a gift which I shall always cherish. My cousin Elizabeth, who has both medical and doctoral degrees in psychology, offered the thought that physical pain often touches one's emotions; with that thought in mind I have absorbed with meaning the substantive interpretations that friends have sent this way.
I have here many cards and flowers which have brightened my day. In the evening Chase Lane neighbors have brought the boys and me delicious dinners. My book group friends are a special team of players who remembered my favorite author, Marilyn Robinson, and so sent me her new book; I am saving it up to read over the Thanksgiving holiday. Work friends both in and outside of CIT who have sent e-mail messages and card or posted on the blog, I miss you all very much and look forward eagerly to the day when I can return, once again be a thorn in your side as we work on some policy or another and, at home base, eat all of your candy! My students in Information Science 515 are a talented, spirited and fantastic example both of what this generation has to offer (a lot!) and how fortunate Cornell University in general, and me in particular, are to be a part of their personal and intellectual development. My family, both remote and here as I type, including my lifelong friends, Mary and Lauren who are like sisters to me, have been a peerless comfort. Okay, gonna cry now, and I still have stents in my nose, so let's move on to another topic :-)
I have posted an article about the surgeon, Amin Kassam, and his team who performed the surgery but I want to take the occasion of this last post to say thank you to Adam Law, who has tirelessly helped me here in Ithaca, and to Amin Kassam, Danny Prevedello and Paul Gardner, Ricardo Carrau and the other surgeons/residents and nurses who cared for me at UPMC. A very special recognition belongs to Lois Burkhart, the nurse coordinator there, who is one of those people who steps into one's life like an angel and truly makes a difference. Without her immediate intervention on that fateful Friday afternoon when I was trying to decide what to do, all of which was based on a simple e-mail inquiry and a phone call from the Orlando Airport wildly disrupted by blaring P.A. announcements two days prior, I might not have had the opportunity of this innovative approach to low skull based surgery and the fortune of a good recovery.
I dedicate this poem, Meckel's Cave, to all of you and the UPMC medical team in particular. My wish to all for a meaningful Thanksgiving holiday could not be more sincere. I hope each and every person touched by this experience will be sure to call upon me and let me know how I can help you someday in a time of need.
Love, Tracy
P.S.
My thanks also to all of you who have been so supportive of Tracy as she has gone through this ordeal. We are eternally grateful for all of your concern and well wishes. It's not every day that one has surgeons poking about in one's brain and we were very lucky to land in Pittsburgh. As I said originally I went into this with Dame Julian of Norwich's famous line, "And all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well" sounding in my head and once again, Julian's wisdom proved true. All is well and we continue forward, grateful for many blessings.
Denise
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