bedambedam
bendamron's Cancer Blog
February 1, 2008
| discharge eve | Views: 32 |
i am home waiting for the delivery of angel’s high tech, all around adjustable, hospital bed. i wasn’t quite sure where i was going to have it place, until renae put a good twist on it. she said that this will be a short term basis, and if angel needs to use it one night for comfort breathing she can. the thought of her on this thing is just too strange. but hasn’t this whole situation been a little surreal? it’s good nonetheless that she will be home tomorrow. angel is feeling better physically than a week ago, and mentally confident that home will be safe once again.
labs from yesterday are all on the up and up. no big changes, but the trend of good liver function continues, and she is producing her own platelets now! her appetite is better, but far from the norm. today at lunch, she held back from gorging herself to causing stomach cramps (nowadays 10 bites worth of food is considered gorging. i’ve realized throughout this process that food, cooking and eating has been such an enjoyable part of our relationship. i’m excited for this part to start again as she feels better and better). she’s also walking and stretching, and spent a good amount of time in the waiting room playing and directing me at a 500 piece puzzle of a garden setting. even with deneen’s ten piece contribution, it’s unfinished of course ;)
i must add that we met another patient named robert in the same waiting room today. he was in his 60’s, he looked healthy, and was being discharged today. he was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (nov 1, 2007) and told us that he was still in the process of deciding between treatment or not. he said this very stoically. i sensed he was genuinely up in the air about this dilemma. i felt his strength and confidence that he had lead a rich and wonderful life up to this point. such a difference from angel who is young, beautiful, and a will to live so she has a chance to experience everything robert has.
i can’t wait for angel to be home tomorrow where the surrounding is our own. i first wrote ‘...surrounding is familiar’ but didn’t want to confuse it with the now familiar faces and places of the hospital.
one more thing, my friend asked me if there were any strange politics about switching doctors. initially, i thought there wouldn’t be so much, but then as the days went by, i realized that what we did was a pretty big deal. the morning dr malpass acknowledged our needs to switch, the room had a number of people including candance the day RN and her RN intern, robin the night nurse. candace told us that afternoon that the RN intern had never experienced such an intense situation before. robin told us similar feelings, and it seems that all the doctors know of this too, and bring it up in an uncomfortable manner, like, do you know you just fired the best freaking doctor we have here? maybe i’m just being paranoid, or maybe i’m just so freaking happy that angel is so freaking happy about the switch ;) (i don’t want to come across as crass, just happy that life seems a little more light under the circumstances)
my brother nate, his wife erin, and my 94 year old grandma red got into town tonight from minneapolis! sight for sore eyes. will be nice to all hang out tomorrow night. who knows, perhaps toni’s mom will cook an italian dinner for us all!
06.22.08 - 
Thanks for your support -