A Day We've Waited For

Psalm 27:14
"Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD."

We've anticipated today for more than two months. It has little to do with Tammy's recovery, and everything to do with her story.

Today, we were able to present the first 200 T-shirts to the BMT Unit. You might recall that we decided to have a fundraiser in Tammy's honor, with the end result being donating T-shirts to every patient who goes through the Unit in the next year.

We spoke with the designer of the T-shirt our son, David, gave to Tammy last year (she's wearing it in the accompanying picture), and she re-designed it for us, adding the words "University of Kansas Hospital, BMT Unit" under the image of Rosie the Riveter. Lindsey is holding one of those shirts.

We also knew that we couldn't give the shirts that say "I Fight Like A Girl" to the male patients, even though we know that there's nothing tougher than a girl with a cause. So we contacted Chuck Norris' agent and got his permission to use his image for a T-shirt for the guys. He liked the idea enough that he gave up his royalties on the shirts so we could get them very inexpensively. You can see the end result of that in the picture as well. (Don't tell him I said this because I don't want him coming after me, but he's a really nice guy.)

In the picture you see Lindsey, the nurse who impacted us so much during Tammy's hospital stay; Tammy and me; and Dr. McGuirk, the lead doctor in the BMT system at KUMC. They had a guy from the communications department who took a whole bunch of pictures and wrote a story for the hospital newsletter. We'll post some (good) pictures and the story when we get them.

From a recovery standpoint, the numbers continue to improve. Ever since the scare of a week and a half ago, things have been looking up with each succeeding trip to the clinic.

Last night, when we took our evening walk, we went up and down the street TWICE! I was tired after one lap, because it had been a long day and it was still hot and humid at 10 p.m. But Tammy wanted to go another lap, so we did. I'm so proud of her, not only for what she's accomplished, but for her perseverance and courage during this whole journey.