Home for Christmas Eve!

Here are pictures taken in the last moments of Denise’s hospital stay. We're glad she's here instead of in the hospital. But Denise had a rough first day at home. She was nauseated the previous night at the hospital, and the ride home was bumpy & upset her stomach. Both of the kids are feeling a little under the weather, so I had quite a challenge today. There was also a problem getting all her prescriptions filled. I didn’t get the prescriptions until today. When I went to pick everything up, I found out that some of what Denise needs is not very common, and there were only a couple tablets… not enough to get us through the Christmas weekend and an early store closing before the delivery truck arrives on Monday. In addition, Denise has been throwing up each meal, pills included. Drainage from her wound was seeping through the dressing, and the bottom of the dressing peeled off. The home care people won’t come out on the day of discharge, so I had my aunt talk me through what to do in order to patch things up until tomorrow. We’ll probably have the home care nurse arrive right as we’re opening presents with the kids. Anyway, perhaps in the excitement to get home, the day’s meds weren’t sent home and the wound dressing slipped by unnoticed this morning. It was checked last night, and the wound specialist said the dressing should be good for a few days… maybe Denise was tossing and turning all night.

On the positive side, she’s home. That’s a pretty big point. She also had a fair share of visitors come by… neighbors, families from school, old college buddies. Thankfully, they sat with Denise & the kids while I went on my trek to try and find the meds that Denise needs to get through the weekend. We also got to take some pictures of Denise awake & smiling with some of the people that have been caring for her these last few weeks in the hospital. And the kids are excited tonight, both because mommy’s home and because it’s Christmas tomorrow. We have a safety lock on the fireplace screen to keep the kids out. Gracie wanted me to be sure to remove the lock so that Santa can come in.

With all that’s been going on during the last weeks, one very practical offer of help came from a couple of the moms from my school. They said that if I gave them my Christmas shopping list, they’d get the shopping done for me. Not only did they do that, but they also refused to accept reimbursement when it came time to settle up. I told Denise about that and we decided that we wanted to take the money we would’ve spent and give it to charity instead. I have a “Christmas gift” catalog from an organization called Samaritan’s Purse. They have “gifts” you can give (via donating money) to people that are a little different… help build a school for impoverished children, build a well, send survival kits to families struck by disaster, buy a goat for a family, etc. The gift we decide on struck both of us as the perfect one to give, in light of all the medical help that Denise has had. On behalf of all the people that have helped us out, we’re taking a small portion of what we’ve been given and passing the blessing along.
“Buy an Airline Ticket to Save a Child’s Life”
The organization coordinates the efforts of doctors, hospitals, churches, and host families in order to fly children to the U.S. to receive life-saving surgery. We’re sharing in the cost of a ticket.
Have a wonderful Christmas Eve!