Welcome Home!

We're Home! The first round of hospitalization for chemo is done. The day started early with Henry getting up at 3:30 am. Yes, that's 3:30 am. Not a typo. The first thing he wanted to see was the calendar that Tara had made for him with a smiley face on the last day. "I want to see my red smiley" were among his first words as he woke. He was ready to go home. Tara called for reinforcements early and I was out the door a little after 6 to avoid traffic. After some medicine to calm his stomach (he didn't get the cisplatin until this morning), he played quietly for almost an hour with his trucks. I would have given $100 for a camera at that point. I just sat and watched him while Tara caught up on some sleep. It was wonderful to see.

His mood deteriorated as the medicines waned, not to mention his lack of sleep was catching up fast. He insisted on sitting in his stroller - I don't think he wanted to miss the opportunity to take off. He was feeling pretty cheeky too. He wouldn't let me turn the TV on for him (a grand distraction) and kept switching it off using the hospital remote as I fumbled with the channels on the main TV unit. He won that round. Tara finally talked him into the TV and into sitting on her lap instead of the stroller. He fell almost immediately to sleep. He didn't wake up until I was pulling the car around to leave about 4 hours later.

The motivation was strong to leave that place and the rest he'd had didn't hurt either. The mask was on him when Tara, our nurse and Henry strolled up to the car. I was secretly glad I didn't have to have that fight with him, but it didn't turn out to be bad at all. He made it most of the way home without much of a fuss. The construction zones where we had to don the mask again and again were uncomfortable reminders to him and he became intolerant of the it late in the drive, but I considered the whole thing a great success.

 

We drove up to the house and to wonderful welcome home signs made by the girls and some of our lovely neighbors. Henry quickly settled in to watching TV. He perked up so much when the Anna and Sophie got home. They huddled around him like bees to honey. They brought him toys and talked to him. He responded with more voice than he had the entire day to us. Tara and I both teared up because it became immediately apparent that the girls would be able to do things for him that even we, or the doctors, nurses and social workers for that matter, just couldn't.

Tonite we all watched a movie together. Henry went to sleep early and easily. There were no demands on our time this night. Tomorrow we realized we had no plans either - a quiet day ahead. Next week Tara will begin to work again; just part time for now, but symbolic for us of a return to some normalcy. We are back at Hopkins twice next week for blood count checks, dressing changes, additional outpatient chemotherapy and the like. But for now we have a few days at home and we're so very glad for it.