Monday, February 2, 2009

Home

(post by Tammy)
There is truly no place like home. We've been home for only one day and I feel more normal already. l love being able to cook something in my kitchen instead of eating sad looking hospital food or restaurant take out. This morning, I made omelettes for breakfast and realized that it's been so long since I've cooked anything. Sean must miss cooking too because he begged me to make cookies with him. We decided on something less ambitious and ended up making cereal treat bars at Natalie's request. Natalie and I made jello tonight. It was wonderful. I love sleeping in my warm bed instead of an uncomfortable convertible vinyl chair. I love uninterruped time with my family, without nurses, doctors, teachers, volunteers, social workers, nutritionists, the custodian, the linen guy, and cafeteria workers barging into our room every minute. Yes, there is no privacy at the hospital. People come in all day long. Some knock and some don't. Most of all, I love having both kids jump into our bed in the mornings.

We've become a hospital family. On the weekdays, Grant comes from work with briefcase in hand and announces, "I'm home!". We normally eat dinner with Natalie at the hospital together (really not, because Sean isn't there) before he goes home to tuck Sean into bed. If we have help from family, sometimes we are lucky to both stay with Natalie for the night or go home to rest together. On the weekends, we chase Sean up and down the hospital hallways trying to burn energy off him.

We were told that if Natalie recovers faster, we could have more time at home. This may not be the case. Natalie is doing so amazingly well with her second round of chemo and today her ANC is 700. Her platelets are at 800,000. The doctors are so pleased and so are we. The only thing is that because she is doing so well, they think she could hit 1,000 Wed or Thursday and are thinking of having her start round 3 of chemo this Thursday. To start chemo, her ANC has to be 1,000 and platelets have to be 150,000. We are hoping that they will give us the gift of time as a family and wait until next Tuesday as was planned. We will know the definite answer tomorrow.

Of course, we want her counts to continue going up incredibly as they have been doing. Please don't stop praying for that.
We are enjoying our time home as a family. It is truly bliss.

Love, Tammy

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Guys, So excited you all are home together. We miss you all so much. We are trading colds here at the house so we will send our love from afar.

Love from the Hopkins

Erica said...

OH, I'm so happy! My daughters (one is 7 like Natalie) have been praying for Natalie every day for months now. I'll have to let them know how well she's doing. I hope she likes her fingerless mitts I gave her. I'll forward this link to nurse Jenny so she can stay in touch w/how Natalie's doing since she's left the hospital. (BTW, tell Natalie that nurse Jenny is a celebrity. She's got a podcast that LOTS of people listen to, so Natalie can say she knows someone semi-famous.)

Anonymous said...

Whoo hoo!!! I'm so happy for all of you! Go, Natalie!!! I hope you savor every minute of your time together. I promise to not take the time with my family at home for granted anymore. I'll pray for Natalie's counts to keep going up but for the doctors to grant you your wish of time at home. Hugs and kisses to all! Richard says "Hi".
Love,
Rosemary and Richard Rios

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say hi & let you know we thinking of you lots & lots. They boys are CONSTANTLY praying for Natalie & Sean. (And so are we of course!) Brian & the kids have had off & on runny noses/coughs over the last several weeks so we've been staying far away from you which is really heard! :)
Hugs from the Schaefers!