Whoahhh, Out Of the Hospital

**Note: I actually wrote this early yesterday morning (June 27th). Couldn't post it until now.**

Well, I’m out of the hospital!
I’m sitting in the dark, at 2:30 AM, at a table in the kitchen of the Ronald McDonald House (RMH). It’s kind of like a youth hostel, but for people with family members who are in the hospital, and Eric managed to wangle us a room. It’s where my family has been staying over the past month.
It’s a really nice place. There are comfy couches scattered all over the place (I’m not in one right now because I’m having a snack, and food isn’t allowed on the couches), and the kitchen is gorgeous. Our room is sweet, with musical instruments bordering the walls.

Anyway, there’s been a change in plans. Or, I guess Dr. Bruckner never completely decided on how the next week is going to go.
I’m going to go ahead and get chemo-nasties this Tuesday. Which means being re-admitted this Tuesday. Only 3-ish days out of the hospital, then.
I’m going in to get blood drawn in clinic on Monday. Then, on Tuesday I will get a bone marrow biopsy, something injected into my spinal fluid, and a “Pick Line” (not sure that’s how they spell it, I’ve never seen it written) inserted.
The “Pick Line” is, to my understanding, like a super IV. It goes into a vein in my arm and threads all the way up to near my shoulder. Weird! Normally they put it in while the person is awake (I hear it’s not that bad), but since they’re giving me sleeping potion for the biopsy anyway, they’re going to do it then. The line can last over 6 weeks, which is awesome, and they’ll be able to use it for the chemo. But apparently I might be able to feel it in my arm, unlike an IV. Well, I guess it sort of is going to be all the way in my vein.

We still haven’t resolved this port business. And we have time to decide, since nothing is going to be put in this week anyway. Gahhh, it would have been so nice just to have been able to keep my old port in. I LIKED it, it was working, and it was nice to me.

My cytogenetic (sp?) results (not sure that’s the right terminology) finally came back (it’s been about a month). I hadn’t mentioned it, I didn’t know much about it. Anyway, they came out good. My parents were INSANELY relieved. I didn’t realize it was that serious.

Moving out was an operation, but really not that bad. Erek and I packed up a lot Thursday night. It took a long time to get out today though, because of all the stuff that had to happen.
My nurse, Emily (who is very very awesome), wanted to make sure that my stuffing was ok, and we thought it was a good idea to have Beth, the wound care lady who came to change my dressing on Thursday, come and look at it again. So she came, and I was sure she would want to change the stuffing before I left. But she said it looked fine, and I was very happy about that.
Then Emily went over a sheet with an overview of my stay, diagnosis, everything that had happened (there was a decent list of scary stuff that had happened, and I have it, and I might type it up. I find it really interesting) with us.
We also went over all of the medicine that I will have to take while I’m an out-patient. Looong list. Later, I made a chart for myself to make sure I keep track of what pills I’ve already taken throughout the day. Uncharacteristically organized of me. :P Also, we’re going to get a pill box.

There was a doctor party, which doesn’t happen quite as often anymore (usually it’s just two or three of them who come in and talk to us in the morning). We asked some questions, got them answered, and I talked to Dr. Norman a little bit, which was nice. She’s really sweet.

Finally, I was really anxious to leave.
We had lunch there. It took us until about 3:30 to get out.
I went to the nurse’s station and said some more goodbyes, though I’m going back in 3-ish days, so it wasn’t really goodbye.
Once we left my unit, we had to go down to the pharmacy to pick up my Prednisone, which they had forgotten to order with my other meds.

I hadn’t ridden in a car for over a month. It was strange strange strange. But not too unfamiliar. We opened all the windows, and the wind blew on my bare head. It was wonderful.
Freeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!
We drove straight to the RMH. Mom and Erek gave me a tour.
We went outside, and started to walk to the Mexican restaurant, which I had been wanting to go to for about 3 weeks. Then I realized that I needed to get together my meds, and figure out what needed to be taken when. I had a few questions about today’s doses, because a few had been missed while we were packing up. It took a while to get through to a doctor and figure it all out. But finally we made it to the restaurant.
It was SO GOOD. The owner was really nice, and mom chatted with him in Spanish for a while. We instantly loved it there. And there weren’t really any other people there, so I didn’t have to worry about wearing a mask (which would have been tricky to eat with).
When we got back to the RMH, Dad and Sue were both there. It was awesome seeing them.
This evening was sweet and relaxed. After a while Mom took a nap, and Dad, Erek, and I started a 1000 piece puzzle. But we soon discovered that there was part of ANOTHER puzzle mixed in (the pieces were significantly different, both in style and texture, so it wasn’t hard to separate them). Haha, we started to do both, and then realized that one of them was incredibly incomplete.
Later we discovered more pieces from a different puzzle altogether.

We decided to go rent a movie, before picking up Kate from the airport (her plane was coming in at around 10:30).
So we all piled into the Cabriolet (dad found this old black convertible somewhere a while ago, and it’s really awesome), and drove through the warm evening with the top down.
Picked up Kate (yay!!!), and drove home. We watched The Royal Tenenbaums.
And then we went to bed, and I couldn’t sleep, so I came out here with the laptop.
There is no wireless here, so I’m typing this offline. I’ll try to find a way to post it tomorrow.