An Update as of 6-3-13

We have arrived safely in Rochester and have settled into our hotel, which is just a block from the Mayo Clinic. We don’t know how long we will be here, but we have our first appointment with our new doctor, Dr. Sean Pittock, at 7:30 tomorrow morning. We are so hopeful that the next chapter in this long yet curiously promising journey will bring new insights, strategies, and healing.

We had a beautiful little moment of encouragement as we pulled into Rochester. Music has become very important to Bob during this healing process. That is apparently not uncommon among people with brain disorders and doctors speculate that it is because music resonates so deeply in the brain. Bob has found plenty of new music that he enjoys, but nothing resonates quite so deeply as Paul Simon’s Graceland CD. In preparation for our trip, Bob spent a long time yesterday transferring some of the new music he’d bought to our phones and laptops. On the flight to Minneapolis, he relaxed listening to that music. But as we approached Rochester in the rental car, Bob confided with a twinkle in his eye that there was one album he had not listened to on the plane, and I knew without asking that it was Graceland. He said that he was saving that for getting to Rochester.

The sound system in our rental car is newer than the one in our car, and Bob realized that he could play the songs from his phone through the car radio if he just had the right cable. So the next thing I knew, he had programmed the GPS to navigate to Best Buy, where he, indeed, found the cable he needed. As soon as he was back in the car, he had the first song on Graceland blaring through the radio. It was also about dinnertime, so as we left Best Buy, I navigated to Chipotle for a couple of quick salads before heading to the hotel. It was only two tenths of a mile between the two stores, so we were just starting to rock out when we pulled into our parking space at Chipotle. As I turned off the engine and we got out of the car, I did a double take, because amazingly the very same song was playing in the outdoor dining area of the restaurant! That song, The Boy in the Bubble, includes a line that says “These are the days of miracle and wonder, and don’t cry baby, don’t cry, don’t cry.” It felt like a personalized welcome to Bob, saying this is a place of healing for you. And so the adventure begins!

-Megan