Going home again

Anjali was discharged from the hospital on June 1st and we were so relieved.  We packed up everything in Anjali's hospital room and made arrangements to get her a wheelchair to head out to the car.  I can't tell you how happy we were!  It was bittersweet for Anjali.  She was definitely ready to go, but there is a certain amount of comfort and protection she felt in the hospital and the real world out there was a bit over stimulating and scary after being there for two months.

When we got back to the Ronald McDonald House, Anjali rang the good news bell but was a bit stunned when a throng of people came out to inquire what the good news was.  We scheduled our plane tickets home and held our breath.  Adam arrived one last Friday to take us home, but then Anjali got a fever of 102, and by the time we got to the emergency room at 11pm it was at 104 and not much later we realized we wouldn't be making the trip home the following day.  It was the low point for me.  I was devastated and worried.  It would be at least 48 hours before we would get any conclusive results about what was wrong.  Luckily, it turned out to be a minor infection and we were released again on the 7th.  We booked tickets home the following day.  We all just really felt that we needed to get home.

And what a relief it was to be home! My parents were such a big help with the transition back to home.  It felt so good for all of us to be there together with the long hospital stay behind us.  Anjali especially seemed to thrive being in the familiar surroundings of home.  We quickly got her back to her favorite place, Marbles, where she could play her little heart out.

We spent much of June in the safe comfort of home taking each day as it came.  Anjali had both good and bad days and took many naps throughout the day.  She started going to physical therapy at Abilitations, which helped tremendously.  Her therapist Holly was wonderful and she loved going and tried hard for Holly.  

Another milestone this month for Anjali was going to her first movie at a movie theater.  I decided to take her to see Finding Dory.  I took her to an IMAX theater, but didn't realize it was also 3D.  Anjali sat through the hole movie and enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, she was so excited about the 3D glasses that she threw off her prescription glasses somewhere on the theater floor.  We spent about 30 minutes after the movie trying to find them to no avail.  She was very upset about losing her glasses, but loved the movie.

We were all beginning to rejuvenate after a challenging hospital stay, so glad to have this most difficult period of our lives behind us and looking forward to returning to somewhat of a normalcy at least our new normalcy as a family of three.

Mother's Day Blues

I wish I could say things got easier in May.  With Anjali's two major surgeries out of the way, we really hoped that Anjali would be on the road to recovery, but a week into May, Anjali seemed to be getting worse and worse.  Although mostly sleeping, she seemed pained and was losing a lot of weight.  Adam's mother left on the Saturday before Mother's Day and my parents arrived that evening.  They were anxious to see her and I had to relay my feelings to them that she was not doing so well to prepare them for the visit.

We visited her that night and I went back to the Ronald McDonald house for a much needed rest from a stressful week at the hospital.  I was looking forward to spending my first Mother's Day with Anjali and my mother.  But then I got a call first thing in the morning from Adam letting me know that they found an infection in the wound site and Anjali would be getting emergency surgery at noon.  My heart dropped. 

The director of the Ronald McDonald house and her family had a wonderful breakfast prepared for all the residents.  It was very touching, but my mother and I could hardly eat as we dreaded the unknowns of knowing Anjali would go back to the operating room.

Anjali's surgery went well.  Dr. Gearheart operated on her.  She had to go back to the operating room 4 more times to keep the wound clean.  From there, the process of recovery started to happen.  And she truly did seem to get better and stronger each day.   There were daily challenges and frustrations, but we were definitely acclimated to life at Johns Hopkins.  During the last week of May, Anjali was allowed to get out of the hospital bed and I was able to hold her in my arms.  It felt so good to hold her again.

What really made all the difference was having family support throughout the whole process.  My parents were there every day to lift my and Anjali's spirits and give me breaks from staying at the hospital.  They were always so positive through it all.  Anjali's other grandparents Papi and Pixie also came to visit and they were so wonderful at spending time with Anjali and their eagerness to help in anyway they could was simply heartwarming.  We are so lucky to have the loving, supportive family that we do.  They have given so much to help Anjali and start her off on the right foot.

We were all so ready to go home at the end of the month.  The end was within sight.  It was hard to believe that this challenge was almost behind us.  Anjali was so excited about the prospect of going back to her blue house in Raleigh and so was I.