Note from Stacey

Hello everyone, Denise and Mom, thanks for keeping in touch. It was nice talking to you on the phone recently, too. I seem to be only able to access my “[email protected]” account right now. I’ll tell you all when I get the hotmail account working again. Progress is slow. Yesterday I walked around for about an hour by myself, pushing my IV pole. I have discovered a new hospital challenge. Now I have to worry about the huge INTELLIBOT, a robot floor cleaner the size of a baby elephant roaming the halls, coming straight towards me with no intention of changing its pre-programmed course. I walk when I can, through the same hallways every day…trying to go a little further. Will it be a record day, 45 minutes, or like today, only 10? I walk to stay moving, to be a part of the world outside my hospital room, with a purpose, but no destination. I remember Lance Armstrong writing that he only felt alive when he was moving– walking, and eventually cycling again. The walking also reminds me of the movie, “Forrest Gump” in which Forrest just starts running, for no particular reason, for years and years. In the end, he marries his sick girlfriend, takes care of her, and raises their son. “Life is like a box of chocolates,” he said. “You never know what you’re going to get.” I think the real trick is to deal with what you DO get, and make a life of it. Here, it is one day at a time. Stacey, from Stanford Hospital