Tuesday, April 1 - Day +12

 

Hard to tell - but that temp says 98.5!

No fooling - We. Are. Home!  

Things happen so slow at a hospital - until they happen fast!  At one point we were told we could go home tomorrow - then it was tonight - and then it was noon (Clearly - did NOT get home at noon) and we were not going to get our hopes up until we were walking out the doors, because everyone had something different to say.  

Here's what I'm curious about - if we did this entire process inpatient, would anyone ever come talk to us about our labs?  Because transferring to inpatient - no one ever came to talk to us about our labs (that would routinely get drawn around midnight!)

Regardless - Andy's WBC and ANC continue to climb.  .9 to 2.0 and .64 to 1.54 respectively.  Today's doctor was very happy with that progress but was quick to remind us that just because we had cells to fight infection, didn't mean we had an immune system yet.  That would take months.  It just means that IF we were exposed to something (when....) we would have cells that could actually fight the infection.  A win is a win!

Andy's Hg, however, continues to decrease - 13.1 to 11.2 to 10.7.  Today's doctor said that's still relatively normal that after the WBC/ANC starts to increase, the Hg lags behind.  Platelets too.  They went from 19 to 13 and because we were going to go home, we ended up getting another bag of platelets before we left.  

We also received another round our antibiotics, although, all bacterial test results came back negative.  

When I got to the hospital today Andy's temperature was 99.2 and when we left it was 98.7.  Yay.  

The kids were beyond thrilled to see their dad AT HOME!  Watching those hugs are moments that will be burned into my memory.  

It's safe to say, everyone is oging to sleep good tonight.  Andy has more energy each day, but after a busy day with NO NAPS, he has his eyes closed sitting on the couch next to me.  What a great sentence - sitting on the couch next to me.  And I think it's safe to say, he will sleep the best tonight in his own bed with no one disturbing him for vitals!  

We head back to day clinic tomorrow morning bright and early.   Will our nurses have missed us?  Did they know we were gone?  And really...what happens next?  

Shock is a strange thing.  Because that is precisely what happened on Sunday night.  As much as they prepared us for potential inpatient, I went into shock.  And you guys stepped up.  The check-ins.  The messages.  The calls.  The texts.  I felt like we could make it because I could give up and just be carried for a few days.  All of you just a gentle hand on our backs, pushing us to keep going forward, even when we weren't moving.   I love you for that.  And now that we are all home together, under the same roof, I feel a new sense of exhaustion.  But one that will be replenished more easily and one that is ready to fight another day tomorrow!  (Ummm, but don't go far - our battle isn't over yet!)