Home, Sweet Home.

Eric is finally home! It was 23 days total, which is better than many other transplant patients. It is still a very long time. It is difficult to describe how long each day feels. He passed the days showering, biking or walking in the small hallway outside his room, watching basketball and Judge Judy, listening to an ipod... it was a simple life. The fatigue made it so hard to get out of bed, as you can see from this

<-picture! He was so tired so this is how he biked that day! Bless him.

Visitors of the Week: My parents came for conference weekend to hang out with us and to help me clean the apartment before Eric's return. Initially they came just to visit, but I don't know if I could have got this place into ship shape without them! They were amazing. Cleaning ceiling vents, bathrooms, cupboards, washing everything in the house even if it was recently cleaned. My mom washed every single dish we own. Dad single-handedly cleaned our bathroom! We worked, and worked, and worked. Oh! And dyed eggs, which was wonderful.

Mom and Dad got to visit Eric twice in the short weekend. It was a lot of back and forth, but that's life! I miss them so much, and wish their trip was much longer.

Peggy, Eric's mom, is here this week. She hitched a ride on a whim, but had perfect timing. Because Eric had to stay longer than we hoped, I would have had to miss more school if she wasn't here. I'm so glad she is here, and will be until Sunday.

God blessed us with two very wonderful pairs of parents.

This is the BMT Unit. We were on one of our walks. This one he was let out the double doors because he was past the point where his cell counts were at 0 (they actually stayed at 0 for 6 days!), which is called being neutropenic.

While we were there, we were privileged to have wonderful nurses and assistants. These two were our favorite nurses, and he had them both frequently. They both fussed over Eric like a mom would, and one of them particularly always made sure that I was also taken care of. She would try to get me to eat, and always brought me drinks. I was so grateful because it was difficult for me to ask for something, considering I am not the patient, but I'm there so often. It was hard to find an easy way to eat or be comfortable. They were so kind and we are so grateful for them.

I believe I mentioned it briefly on earlier posts, but Eric got a couple fevers that prevented us from coming home over the weekend. With the fear of infection, they decided to remove his central line, which is a strong candidate for the site of an infection. The put a port in his arm instead.

Finally, Wednesday was the day. They wanted to push to get him out by 11 0'clock a.m. We know hospitals, and we know that you never get out when they say, but they reassured us that they were different, and always worked very hard to get patients out early.

Unfortunately, no one mentioned he would have to get a medicine through his port before he left, and it would take 4 hours!! He would be ready to go home at 2, and gee, we're not sure why anyone told you earlier!! arrrrgggghhh. We were so annoyed! I was already on my way up, and I had left Peggy at home because she had to wait for package, so we felt bad that she didn't come and could have.

Still, we were optimistic. If we could get out by 2:30, we could hit up Chipotle and still make it back in time for me to get to class at 4:00. Around 1:00, his nurse for the day came in to change his dressing on his new port. He had already been hooked up 3 hours; the end was near! She looked, then looked again at the machine.

Nurse: Ohhhh no.

Eric: What?

Nurse: I forgot to hook up the medicine. Oh my gosh. Oh this is my fault.

Eric: (silence)

Nurse: I have been a nurse for a long time and I've never done this before. Oh this is gonna mess up Bob's schedule too. Oh this is my fault.

Eric: (silence)

We were SO MAD!!!!!! We had never been neglected at BMT, never ever! Usually when he is hooked up, at least a nurse assistant comes in to check every hour or so. But three hours and no one came in! So she had to start it then, and Eric was now set to go home at 5:00. Well, I had to go back for school. So I drove home, Peggy dropped me at school and drove straight back up to pick up Eric. It was so maddening, mostly because there was nothing we could do. The last day, each hour crawls like another day entirely, so each delay made it feel more and more like we would never get home. But we did make it home, and Lisa picked me up from school and we met them at Chipotle, so I suppose all is well that finally ends well!

Er will still be on medication at home for a week or so. He can move around but he has to carry the little bag of medicine. We decided we ought to get him a fanny pack, but then he discovered one of my Coach purses that fits perfectly! So much more fashionable than a fanny pack!

We are home. Come visit! Just be clean and healthy!