It’s Good to Be Home, Part II

Our next trip to the ER didn’t involve anyone trying to steal my identity, but it did, unfortunately, involve an extended stay in the oncology ward. Booo!! Our bargaining skills just aren’t at their peak at 3 in the morning. Especially unfair was that this time around, I kept hearing how healthy I looked. People kept saying, “you look way too good to have this kind of blood work.” If I looked so darn good, shouldn’t they really have just sent me back home?

But, no. They kept me and observed me, treated me to some fine antibiotics for a couple of infections I had, and ultimately were unable to solve most of the medical mysteries (involving blood and labs and things) that had brought me there in the first place.
We made the most of my incarceration with our iPod stand, electric tea kettle, and picnics filled out with the help of a nearby Trader Joe’s. I even had one of my favorite softie-soft blankets with me that’s so pretty it always makes me smile (sent to me years ago by Kristin’s mom–Thanks, Kristin’s mom!). I think it even has prayers somehow woven into it. The only thing our hospital survival kit needs now (besides a cool James Bond escape parachute) are some LED flickering votives for ambiance.

Finally, the docs decided that they’d observed me enough and that my mysteries were planning to stay mysterious and they let me go. Five stars to my inpatient oncologist who made sure I got out in time to make it to my haircut! Granted, several days at the hospital had worn me out and I was a bit of a zombie in the chair but my hairdresser is so awesome she doesn’t need any direction. She spent extra time on the scalp massage and gave me a mini relaxation/cranial sacral session on the massage table to help rejuvenate me enough to get home. She is the best!

Then home again and that’s where I’ve been recuperating for the past few weeks. Luckily, just before this happened, the dads each did a screen door project–one fixed a faulty front door screen and the other put in a back screen door. We can now have our doors open and get a nice cross breeze through the house without those scalawag cats of ours escaping to go and join the pirate cat gang in the neighborhood.

Plus, we get to hear all the birds chirping and smell the spring flowers and freshly mowed grass.

My healing couch has a view out both screen doors, and an especially nice view out the back.

My first day home from the hospital almost my entire view out the back screen door was filled with our giant cherry tree.

The picture doesn’t quite capture it, so I took a pic upstairs looking down so you can get a better view of the tree.


As the weeks have gone by, the petals have started to fall. There’s nothing like laying back and watching cherry blossom petals float down–some days all swirly and mad from wind, other days lazily drifting down, some slipping in the crack between the partial screens and the bottoms of our open windows.

I catch glimpses of other flowers too from my couch–just enough to tempt me into getting up and out for a backyard flower tour. It’s our first spring in this house so we never know what’s going to pop up next.

One of our most thrilling discoveries was the large lilac bush across the yard from the cherry tree. I tried capturing the symmetry of the cherry tree on one side and the lilac bush on the other, but couldn’t get it to look right in a photo. Somehow you focus on the space between the two where there isn’t anything special to look at. Which seems like a perfectly reasonable reason to put something spectacular there. Like a tea house or a bamboo gazebo. Or a cabana! (I fell in love with a cabana in a catalog and talked about it endlessly until the catalog mysteriously disappeared).

Barrett did some snipping and gathered us an indoor lilac bouquet so even when the door shuts at night we still get that delicious lilac smell.

Did I mention how good it is to be home? 🙂

Love to you all,

Bridget

3 replies on “It’s Good to Be Home, Part II”

  1. Aww so happy for you Bridget to be back home and enjoying the returning warmth and sunshine. No one deserves it more. Here’s hoping it stays. So so tired of the rain! (-: sending hugs your way to you both.

  2. Your wonderful photo of the hospital picnic looks great. Thinking positive, healing thoughts for you. What a fabulous yard you have as well- glad there is something so nice to look at out the window.

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