Four Week Surprise!

Four weeks ago today, we walked into the hospital for the first time as newbies in the world of cancer.  Now, for better or worse, the pediatric hem/onc ward  has become like a second home to us.  

So homey that today I  even got to play nurse and don a mask and gloves while I learned the ins and outs of taking care of Spencer's central line at home.  I practiced flushing it with saline and heparin and learned the super sterile techniques of changing the dressing. 

The nurse watched my every move and let me practice on this dummy before trying it on poor Spencer who was giving me pointers while I did it. 

After that we packed up Spence's stuff...

and took it wagon load by wagon load out to the car....

Then a little going away party showed up to ooh and ah over his pink discharge ticket...

then they escorted him to the front doors of the hospital where the girls took the liberty of naming his monkey, "Rasneyily"...a catchy combination of their names...Jill, Sydney, Carly, and Rachel . 

It was a day or two earlier than we expected, so we weren't quite as prepared as we would have preferred....

but after a last minute shopping trip and a sign making/scrubbing/laundry session, we are so very happy to be home again.

All together under one roof.  Sleeping in our own beds.  Eating meals together.  

I don't think coming home has ever felt so sweet. 

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Now that we are home...

you won't find us at the hospital anymore (just in case you planned on visiting). 

We have a home care company who brought us all the supplies we will need to flush his lines daily and change the dressing weekly.

he has an appointment to get his blood checked on Thursday, then if all looks good, he will get a bone marrow biopsy/spinal tap after that.    They told us to plan on it taking most of the day. 

The home bound education finally got set up and Spencer's home bound teacher arrives tomorrow for their first session. 

I will likely not be blogging every day while we are all at home.  I like to blog too much not to post at all, but I'm going to focus on soaking up every second I can of being all together as a family for this week. 

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"Think not that uninterrupted joy is good. The sunshine lies upon the mountain top all day, and lingers there latest and longest at eventide. Yet the valley is green and fertile while the peak is barren and unfruitful. Life that is all sunshine without shade, all happiness without sorrow, all pleasure without pain, were not life at all, at least not human life. Take the life of the happiest. It is a tangled yarn. It is made up of joys and sorrows, and the joys are all the sweeter because of the sorrows."

Reed Smoot

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