She's Home!

Nope-- she’s not ready for visitors!

Sandy made it home a little after 4pm yesterday, and we were met almost immediately by a delivery from the home infusion company and Sandy’s home care nurse. The next couple of hours were spent learning all about how to store the formula and bottles of vitamins, mix the vitamins with the TPN (Anna Nicole), how to flush the PICC line and inject it with heprin, how to organize and schedule medications, and so on. If you let it, the volume of information could really make your head spin.

This was the first time we were able to lay out all of her meds—Haley counted 24 pills per day that her mother has to take. Wow. These vary from anti-rejection drugs and steroids, to antifungals, vitamins, and so on…even a stool softener (though Sandy is proud to not take those).

She seemed to sleep pretty well last night, overall. You understand that is relative—she slept pretty well, relative to how she has been sleeping in the hospital. The pump that infuses the TPN actually makes a fair bit of noise, sounding a little like an old 35mm camera clicking off pictures and grinding the negative film slowly to advance it…all night long. God, I hope I get used to that noise quickly. Any time that Sandy has to get up, I have to get up with her to carry her TPN and pump to the bathroom. All the oral medication is making her nauseous, so we spoke with the nurse today about some anti-nausea medication. These were pretty successful for her while going through chemo, so it does not seem to make sense to try to suffer through it now.

The girls decorated the house for Sandy’s arrival. Gerry and Bob, Sandy’s parents, brought her home from the hospital to be greeted by a couple of large clusters of balloons, streamers in the trees and on the portico, and a sign that reads “Welcome Home Sandy!” The sign was made by our neighbor across the street, who also happens to be named Sandy. The girls returned the favor by decorating her front step and light post with the same pink and blue streamers. I have a picture of this spectacle, but Blogger is not allowing me to post pictures for some reason (bug). If you're patient and promise to look beyond the Beverly Hillbillies inspired front door (torn to shreds in last weeks 50+ mph winds), maybe I'll post it later.

Riley was very happy to see Sandy. He greeted her in the front yard, never attempted to jump up, and hung by her side from the time she got home and went upstairs…to the time we finally made him go outside TODAY at 2:15pm! He never ate dinner or breakfast, and refused to leave the room. I don’t think Sandy was at all disappointed to see him cling so closely. He finally went outside when Sandy decided that she would sit out on the deck for a few minutes. It is beautiful and sunny today, a little above 70 degrees, and it is the first meaningful time that Sand has spent outside in a long time. And the dog finally relieved himself...which lasted about two straight minutes.