8-16-16

Since Friday, we thoroughly enjoyed our last weekend at home for a while! Drew wasn't able to go to the fair, so I took Molly during nap-time Saturday. And that was a wonderful time for just Mama and Molly to be together! Then we went to pick up my Aunt from Colorado at the airport in Minneapolis Saturday evening, and got there early enough to watch a few planes take off and land! The kids really liked that! Then Sunday we spoke at church, sharing some of the ways God has worked in our lives and through us during this difficult time. It was great to be able to think everybody for all they have done, and give people an update before we checked in for this next big hurdle. Then it was time to prepare for that hurdle. Packing the suitcases again, seeing some of our "hospital gear" after having it put away for so long, was pretty hard and really made things real. We are going back and doing this again...But we had a nice family dinner and came over to St Mary's. Drew's "apartment" ( as Molly calls his hospital rooms) for this month is a couple doors down from his room last month.

Yesterday they got the chemo going about 10 AM. This time we have 3 different chemo drugs running over 4 days. One for all 4 days, one for 3, and one for 2. The 2 day one only infuses for 30 min, but the other two are 24/7. So yesterday and today are the biggest days, then we lose one each day until Thursday. So far he's been doing fine. Although this morning he got sick for the first time, making this round official I guess. But in general we expect him to be the worst next week and after.

While he still feels pretty good, the struggle is to keep him under control! I cam tell he's not used to hospital restrictions and limitations anymore. The unit we are confined to is pretty small, and our "friend" the IV pole always cramps our style. He acts pretty surprised to wake up in the middle of the night to a stranger changing his diaper too! He is, however, super excited to have his warm blankets back! I have to get back into Hospital Mode too, living out of your suitcase, making sure someone is watching him if I have to go out, and then the beeps and visits in the night always take some getting used to... But we will get settled back into our groove again soon!

Keep those prayers coming for comfort, healing, protection from infections, and general peace as this transplant stay really gets going!

~Heidi