Sigh

That is how I feel right now. It has officially been 5 days since I left the hospital. There have been ups and downs for my mom. Ups including some nice conversations about food that she wanted to cook or eat and downs including some throwing up and a very late night trip to the ER after her first day of chemo treatment following the transplant. But all in all, things seem to be pretty good right now. We are sitting back at our house in PA, next to the fire, and everyone is home and healthy (well as healthy as can be expected) and content.

Becky and I came home yesterday afternoon, took a looooooooong nap, ate pizza, and then went back to bed while Mom and her friend Patty took on the last day of chemo, endured more sickness, and spent the last night in the suite next to the hospital. Then, Becky and I spent 5 hours cleaning and sanitizing mom's bathroom and bedroom and stacking the house with hand sanitizer so we could cleanly welcome her home this evening. She is once again looking quite perky and talking about food - which is our signal that she is feeling pretty good:)

And so . . . as the bruises on my butt get bigger and bigger (still unsure as to why that is), I guess it is about time to get back to the regular grind of life. Back to grad school due dates, daily hour drives to and from the hospital for bloodwork, cooking, cleaning, and sitting by the fire in between. For the time being though, half-marathon training WILL be placed on hold. And to top off the week . . . I got to talk to John for a whole 10 minutes last night!!!!

It seems that day +5 transplant brings a simple kind of content feeling. I have spent the day thinking about my husband, praying for an old high school friend, and talking with an old college friend. I thank all of you for your prayers for me - it seems I am healing up fine despite the ugly looking marks. So, it is time to turn our prayers towards my stem cells that are floating around in my mom. I pray for them to be strong and productive in their quest to take over my mom's stem cells and make their own white blood cells. Love to you all:)