Go Pacers!

You guessed it -- Dr. T took Bailey to the Pacers game! What a night! I'll warn you now, this is going to be a long post. I tried all day to get Bailey to wash her hair - she's just not in to it. Dr. T busts in the door at 3:00 while she's working on a craft and says, "What are you doing?! You don't have time to be doing that! You have to be ready to go by 6:00!" They go back and forth, with Bailey saying "Are you serious?!" about 3 or 4 times. He says, "So, there's good news and bad news. The good news is you're going out to night. The bad news is . . . " And Bailey cuts in and says, "What, you're going too?" We bust out laughing and the poor guy's looking at us like "Did you hear that?!" I'm thinking, "Oh, Bailey! Just wait until you find out!" (The bad news was that her blood isn't thin enough again and, since she can't be hooked up to an I.V. because "we have plans and that would screw them up", she had to get a shot of heparin in her arm. But she took the news well - but the shot did end up hurting her quite a bit, it stung really bad, but she got through it.) So he leaves the room, and she says, "We have to wash my hair!" So he comes back at 6:00 with his nurse practitioner and all the emergency medical supplies packed up and he leads us all (Scott and Nancy, and Tom and the girls, and me and Bailey) down the hall. She still doesn't know where she's going but all the nurses are waving and saying, "Bye! Have fun!" We get all the way down to the exit doors by E.R. and one of the transport people, Ann, introduces herself to Bailey and says, "My daughter was so jealous to find out you were going to the Pacer's game tonight!" The whole crowd busts out laughing. We were all just DYING for the moment that she was told what was going on. It was priceless. Ann's face turned beet red, of course, and Bailey's eyes were HUGE! Dr. T just laughed. So we climbed on the ambulance (Bailey, me, the transport team, and two profusionists (equipment/Berlin Heart experts - along for the ride, we find out later, because Dr. T is "just paranoid"). Scott and Tom each take off with their VIP parking passes and meet us over at Conseco Fieldhouse. The ambulance gets to drive underneath the Fieldhouse where all the players, coaches, and other important people park (boy! there are some nice cars down there!). Bailey just gets lowered out of the ambulance when three really important-looking guys walk up to her. Once of them introduces himself to her and Dr. T leans over to her and explains that they are the referees. They tell Bailey not to yell at them too loud during the game. They were very nice and all tell Bailey how nice it was to meet her. Then we make it to the suite -- the "Pacers Sports & Entertainment Suite" -- and the coaches wife, Donna, is there to meet us. We actually met her yesterday here at Riley. She's a doctor here, but goes by another name. When they took me out in the hall yesterday to talk about final plans and explained to me who she was, I couldn't go back into the room and tell Bailey because that would have given away the surprise! So that made it even harder to keep the secret, but I did! Anyway, she made sure we were comfortable, and then Coach Carlisle walks in with Germaine O'Neal! They introduce themselves to Bailey and talk to us for a few minutes. They were very nice! (Boy, does Germaine have some BLING!!) Then, Donnie Walsh walks in a little while later carrying a basketball signed by Larry Bird. He talks to Bailey -- very nice man -- and Dr. T then tells him that his $25,000 donation went toward Bailey's Berlin Heart. He was very grateful to hear that and said how nice it was to see what his donation is doing. AND THEN, Quinn Buckner comes in and talks to Bailey. What an evening. Bailey eats a hot dog, cotton candy, a snow cone, and a huge pile of nachos. Now, how am I supposed to record that on her calorie count sheet?! Donna, the coach's wife, sat down by the bench the first half, but spent the rest of the game with us. She was such a sweetie. (Vickie, she reminded me so much of Juanita!) Dr. T made it very clear to Bailey before the game that we can all leave whenever she gets tired. So, just as the game goes into overtime, Bailey turns to Dr. T and says, as an "early April Fool's Day" trick, that she's ready to go. Dr. T, being the sweet man that he is, says, "OK. We can go." Bailey blurts out "April Fool's Day!" and then they bicker back and forth for a while. We thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the game (Pacers won, 114 to 108), waited around a little while after the game to let the crowd and triffic clear out a bit, boarded the ambulance, and came back "home". I got some good pictures. I'll try to post them at home this weekend. We had such a good time! And Bailey was so surprised, and on Cloud 9 the entire evening! We didn't even take a wheelchair with us - she walked the entire way herself. I'm sure Dr. T would have carried her if he needed to. The entire medical team was just simply at Bailey's service tonight. They treated us all like royalty. Truly a night we will remember for the rest of our lives. We got back about 11:30, and all the nurses run down to Bailey's room and wanted to hear all about it!! Such a fun evening! And Dave, Bailey's night nurse, even taped Survivor for us tonight. They are so good to us! Unfortunately, I am pretty tired (It's really 1:30 a.m. but I'm posting this as 11:45 so it will keep the March 31 date) but I'm afraid Bailey is far from going to bed. So, pray for me! Haha!! Wish you all could have been there with us -- it was one big party! Love, Angie