She's Home!!!!

 On January 11th our sweet sister missionary returned home after 545 days (18-months) of serving the Lord in the Salt Lake City-West mission. 

Here's my Facebook post from that day:  "WELCOME HOME, EMMA!!! In the past month, we’ve welcomed our first grandbaby, visited the grandbaby twice, adopted a new puppy, celebrated Christmas, gave talks in church, hosted my sister and her family for a week, got COVID, quarantined for 10 days, marked the 10th anniversary of Spencer’s cancer diagnosis, and today welcomed home our missionary after 18-months of serving the Lord! Now time to take a deep breath and enjoy our sweet girl being back in the nest again for a while! So proud of you, Hermana Goold!" 

She was originally called to serve as a Spanish speaking missionary in the Toronto Canada mission, but was reassigned to serve in Salt Lake City-West while she was still in the Home MTC.  We thought for sure that she'd eventually make it to Canada, but, alas, the Canadian borders didn't open up until just after she'd been permanently reassigned to stay in SLCW just after she passed her year mark.   She was a little nervous when we told her we'd be moving to Utah while she was still serving, but we promised her up and down that we would never try to see her and we kept that promise.   We did hand-deliver  a couple packages to the mission office, rather than sending them through the mail, but we made sure we delivered them when we knew she wouldn't be around!  

It was crazy that we just got to drive less than 30 minutes to her mission president's home to pick her up...no airports or public transportation needed!  We LOVE having her home and love that Ellie doesn't have to be the lonely only for a few months!   Between the arrival of Denali onto the scene...

 and Emma's return home...the volume level of our home has increased significantly over the last few weeks! 

 (see video for  Exhibit A)

We appreciate the example she set by consecrating a year and a half of her life to bringing people closer to Christ and we love having her home now. We love you, Emma!  

Thank goodness...

for modern medicine...

even if it does take up an entire shelf in our fridge...

and make me drop my mouth in horror at the "cash price" we could be paying if we didn't have good insurance....

and max out the number of alarms I can set on my cell phone, including a 1:30am alarm (to administer a medicine) and a 5:09am alarm (to help get Cami out the door for seminary)...

Although I'm thinking that being at home this round won't be quite as restful as it's been in past times, we're still comforted by the knowledge that our entire family is under the same roof again!   

HAPPY DAYS! 

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UPDATE: 

• We are home and it seems like we have an entire pharmacy full of drugs at our house!  Previous visits home have only involved a fraction of the medications we're administering this time, but because of the infection he is recovering from, they just want to make sure their bases are covered!  

• Here's a glimpse of his antibiotic vancomycin which he needs to be administered three times a day (this the antibiotic that causes his Red Man Syndrome if he doesn't take Benadryl beforehand)....

• Because he still needs the antibiotic administered intravenously and we randomly don't happen to have a hospital IV pump at home, they prescribed these cool little contraptions that basically have the antibiotic inside of a balloon-like device inside this pressurized container.  When he the device is hooked up to his central line, the balloon starts depressurizing and the medicine is delivered at just the right speed.  Weird, but cool! 

• Birthday greetings for Spencer are starting to pour in!  Thank you for taking the time to shower him with love and words of faith and encouragement.  Spencer insisted that he not open any of the letters until it's actually his birthday, but his (and our) excitement level is increasing by the day! 

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" There are many kinds of challenges. Some give us 
necessary experiences.  Adverse results in this mortal 
life are not evidence of lack of faith or  of an 
imperfection in our Father in Heaven’s overall plan. 
The  refiner’s fire is real, and qualities of 
character and righteousness  that are forged in the 
furnace of affliction perfect and purify us and  
prepare us to meet God."  Quentin L.  Cook

IF...

...his blood counts stay up
....he stays fever free
...his chest pain stays away
...he continues to wean well from the heavy duty painkillers
...the home health care company can come with needed supplies and instruct us how to use them

then Spencer can go home tomorrow!!!!!!!!

Not only that, but the docs have discussed and decided that if all of the above continues, then....
....
....
....
....
....
He can stay home through his birthday (April 30th) and  return to the hospital for his bone marrow biopsy/readmission on May 1st. 

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"God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can't if you don't pray, and He can't if you don't dream. In short, He can't if you don't believe.”
― Jeffrey R. Holland

Home

I tried to write a meaningful post tonight, but I just have to admit that I simply don't have the brainpower to do it, so I'm going to sleep.  In my own bed.  Next to my husband.  With my kids in neighboring rooms.  There will be no hall lights left on.  No IV pumps will beep at us.  And nurses will not wander in and out of our room.  Life is good. 

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Update

We took Spencer in for a blood draw this morning and his counts weren't high enough for the bone marrow biopsy and spinal tap which were scheduled for this afternoon (ANC=230).  That meant we got to spend a bonus day at home instead of waiting, waiting, waiting in the hospital! 

The doctor just called and said she would reschedule his biopsy and tap for Monday or Tuesday and then readmit him to the hospital at the same time, so he can get started on his second round of chemo.  We're grateful for the weekend together, but sad that it already seems like way too short a time at home. 

Spencer is trying to eat up every moment of normalcy he can while he's at home.  He's been able to hang with friends, eat lots of home cooked food (now that his throat is better), and wander aimlessly through the house happy to be unhooked from his IV tower.    He even ventured to an uncrowded store tonight (with a mask of course). 

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"A home is much more than a house built of lumber, brick, or stone. A home is made of love, sacrifice, and respect. We are responsible for the homes we build.... There will be calm and wind, sunlight and shadows, joy and sorrow. But if we really try, our home can be a bit of heaven here on earth." 

~Thomas S. Monson

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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