Day 41: Welcome Home Mady!

Saturday, October 20, 2007 - This was our first day home as a family in 40 days, and it was lovely. Madeline woke up first, of course, and made pancakes... from scratch!

We have bottles of Purell all over our very clean house, and the HEPA air filter unit hums quietly in Mady's room.

It does seem a little odd that Mady's vitals are not being taken four times a day. What is her ANC today? We have no idea. We have obsessed over her "counts" each day for the past two weeks, and now we just don't know. Is it over 200? We trust that it is, but we won't find out for a few days I guess... and that's a little scary. (Chris says she thinks it's okay that we don't know, and I think she's probably right)

We picked up a couple of prescriptions at CVS today, and they looked different from her hospital meds... but we had no nurse to ask about it. Chris called MGH, asked for the 18th floor of Ellison, and found one of the many nurses who had been treating Mady. She gladly answered our questions... whew! (One of the benefits of having lived on the 18th floor for so long) She told us that Ellison 1816 is alread filled. I hope the new occupant, as we did, finds the room to be filled with positive energy and good karma.

Later in the evening we met Michelle, one of the nurses from Critical Care Systems that will be coming to the house several times a week to check Mady's vital signs, do blood draws for ANC checks, and administer outpatient meds as required. She's really nice, and it turns out that she's the aunt of one of Mady's friends here in Belmont. Small world.

Good friends made the wonderful banner in the photo above. Can you spot Whiskers welcoming Mady too? Click on the photo to enlarge it...