A Kasey Musgraves song, “Rainbow,” was playing this morning and I thought it was ironic after the big storm I drove through last night. Yesterday, plodding home after pampering myself with a haircut and pedicure, I thought the skies looked ominous and dangerous. The wind started to push me on the barely visible road, and the pelting rain had my wipers going in overdrive. Exiting US-23 at Territorial Road, I pulled into the gas station because an eerie feeling about the weather had me taking precautions. Knowing my drive home was filled with tree-lined roads — and trees fall in heavy wind and rain — I called Dave to say I was going to sit tight and wait it out. I wasn’t the only one either. Within minutes, the gas station parking lot was at capacity with others taking the same precautionary measures.

Ten minutes later, I felt I had my opening to make the rest of the trip home. Within two minutes, I came upon the first fallen tree. I veered around the large live tree, mirroring the few cars in front of me. After swerving around four more fallen trees, the fifth and final tree stopped all of us. It clearly blocked the entire road, and there was no way around this huge tree. One by one, we took turns backing our way out of this precarious situation.

The remaining 20 minute drive home took 40 minutes of back roads, and with white knuckles and a moment of a thankful prayer, I pulled into the garage safely. The torrential downpour and driving winds continued beyond the closed door. There I sat thinking that this situation was identical to what we are experiencing right now. Roadblock after roadblock, we have been forced to reroute and change directions. Inevitably, our goal will always be to make it home healthy and safely without any more stormy weather.

A second bone marrow transplant is seemingly ominous and somewhat dangerous, but precautions will be taken. Preliminary results show that Dave’s heart and lungs are still in excellent condition despite the storms he has endured in the past 16 months. His counts are holding steady, slowly improving with each visit to Karmanos. Although Dr. Uberti will make the final determination next week, we remain positive that this decision to move forward is our route to better days ahead.

As the skies are finally clearing, we continue to imagine the exact moment when you first see a rainbow. Simply thinking about it makes me smile. And, even though we’ve weathered some rough days and multiple roadblocks, there’s always been a rainbow hanging over our heads.