HOME

 Toe scraped by with his PFTs yesterday. They were right on the border of prescribing Prednisone, but decided to send us home and see how things settle out. We packed up, had the PICC removed from Toe's arm, did a final breathing treatment and headed home. It was a spectacularly beautiful PNW day and I was able to doze on the ride home.

Only a few things to take home....

When we arrived at the house, Uncle Awesome asked us to show him where the pilot light for the hot water heater was - he thought maybe it  had gone out. Unfortunately, the hot water heater is electric. Upon examination, a leaky pipe had dripped water into the electrical panel and caused a short - enough to pop the fuse and leave a burning smell in the basement. J was just glad that the whole house didn't burn down. We have insurance and have been told we should have hot water in the next few days.

But last night, we had just gotten home from the hospital and all needed to wash off the hospital germs. We called our friends M&R and asked if we could crash their New Years' Eve plans to shower at their house. They welcomed us and fed me an egg nog White Russian, after which, I felt much better. After a meal and showers we all felt warm and cozy and came home to do breathing treatment and go to bed. We were all asleep well before midnight.

I must say, the best Christmas gift I received this year was from Uncle Awesome. While we were in the hospital, he did our piles of head-lice laundry, cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen, vacuumed, mopped, and rearranged so that when we walked into the house, it smelled so clean. Each new room I went into was clean. Of course, we dumped all of our bags everywhere and it will take time to re-assimilate... 

This morning, Toe's Nana and Papa came and posted  signs and balloons in our yard as a welcome home (they thought we were coming home today). We were so happy to see them!

My mom, in infinite kindness, has taken most of our hospital laundry to do at her house (while we wait for the hot water repairman). J has gone back to work. Toe and I have taken the day slowly and gently. The kid is a ball of energy. As he jumps and runs and crawls around the house, I'm glad we did the PICC line at the hospital rather than at home.

We are SO grateful to all of the people who visited us during our hospital stay, who played with our kid, brought us food and entertainment, gave great support and hugs. We are also grateful  to those people who came down with colds or coughs who stayed away and allowed us to stay healthy during our two week adventure. And we are grateful for everyone who followed our journey and provided support and kind thoughts via Facebook, email, or phone. We were well cared for and we feel very loved.