Play guitar and brush left knee two

3/10-3/12  Wednesday – Thursday (Hospital day 30) – Friday

Last walk down the hall this stay singing “To Dream the Impossible Dream” from Man of La Mancha.

Going home.  Yeah!  Dismantled the room, re-reading more than a hundred cards.  Tried to bribe the nurses to reserve her room for her return visit … but it didn’t work.  Gave away the red cranes of hope to a friend Adam (Deana in her Gan Bei club) going through chemo across the hall and to Latonya, a woman with breast cancer.

Before Teri goes home, she asks Dr. N. the oncology fellow – who will get her hot water in the middle of the night – he answers B of course!

Shannon the nurse watches as B is taught to flush her 2 PICC lines – and its reinforced at home by home care. 

B wheelchairs Dad to the edge of the Cancer floor – every door he goes through sets off a loud alarm – from the electronic bracelet that is designed to keep him from wandering off (as B belatedly learned).  Dad has to be 10 feet away since he is infectious and wears a mask.  Teri is standing at the edge of her ward waving and talking to him.  He asks if he can be closer to her.  Teri tells him that they will be enjoying dinner together again very soon.  He needs to think positive and work on getting his strength back.

Although a grey day at discharge, this is the first day Teri has been or seen the outside world (her hospital room faced an indoor courtyard).  She’s enjoying her ride home seeing the familiar landmarks and notable progress in buildings going up downtown. 

She putters around the condo, saying hello to her plants and enjoying the paintings on the walls.  Then she sees the dishes of labor of love stored in the fridge and freezer made by Rachel and Anita and Henry and it warms her heart.  It feels great to be home and to sleep in her own bed. 

Teri will be home for one week till the 18th where she will return to the hospital and get her second round of chemo which will be 30x’s stronger than the first round.  It is called “consolidation”.  Her bone marrow will be depleted again to kill off any remaining cancer cells because she has to reach close to 0% for the bone marrow transplant. 

On Friday morning, Teri starts her routine of reading her book “Healing Scriptures”, walks and does her Tai Chi.  That morning, Teri and B are treated with back massages by an old friend Kari from Columbus, Ohio who is moving to Milwaukee.  Yes! 

In the afternoon, B’s dad was discharged with an unknown pneumonia, possibly fungal, and B took him to the Milwaukee Catholic Home for rehabilitation = subacute care.  He will be there for several weeks to regain his lung function and leg strength.  He is a good sport and taking it all pretty well and realizes that it’s what he needs in order to be able to live independently again at home.