Super Tuesday

Before my stay-cation here at Karmanos, Super Tuesday meant we launched the day off with our weekly sales meeting in the Grand River Conference Room.  This was followed by a whole lot of cold calls and a focus on selling turnkey advertising campaigns that had me in and out of appointments with current, future and potential clients.  These days were dedicated to high sales activity and I loved every minute of it. The main reason why, was because I was challenged and the day was susceptible to anything and everything going right or going all wrong. It meant staying on my toes and I had to keep one step ahead of the game at all times.

Fighting cancer is much like my job. I have a schedule of what should happen each day, what meds I will be given along with what chemo has been ordered. I even know what mouth-watering food tray that will be arriving three times a day; whether I choose to eat it or not remains in question. Just like my job, I also know that there are a handful of variables that can change the predicted course of action at any given moment. Clients or potential leads sometimes cancel, swap times, change their minds on where to meet for lunch, move the time out 'till after the weekend; the list goes on. Sometimes, my breakfast scrambled egg whites that arrive under the maroon dish cover, look semi-appetizing, sometimes they require a prescription in order to force them down. What I think might be a smooth sailing afternoon, might wind up in a nauseating mess. Sometimes the drugs that they have me on have other side effects that require additional meds to help alleviate the pain or uncomfortableness. Like I said, who knows what Super Tuesday madness might come up around here.

Today's Super Tuesday was a super one indeed. I woke up and hit my goal of walking 25 laps around the BMT unit and, in the process, I also met my neighbor, Steve, who is my main competition for most laps completed per day. He is here, just like me, wanting to hurry up the healing process and get out of here to see his kids. We both have lives that are far different from who we are here; or perhaps not so much different, but what defines us here is not what defines us outside this hospital. He has a wife, a family and a job that keeps him busy enough to not want to take time out for a Karamanos stay-cation. I too have a son, a job that I love and lots of friends that I'd rather see in the D at a Tiger's game versus on the 10th floor of the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. But here we all are today; Steve and I, my dad, mom, sister, Sarah, Emma and Dave, all together to celebrate the friendships that we've made and hold onto those ties when the rest of the world seems to get a little shaky. Sarah even brought along Team Tara "Losing is not an option" shirts and Dave brought by some movies and radio freebies and giveaways. Who doesn't love a free tee?

And, last but not at all least, Jon came by with dinner from Slows To Go BBQ...mmm; amazing food and even more amazing the company. Both could not have come at a better time.
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Stay-cation, Day 4 down.