The picture above was taken while Lee and her mom enjoyed their final afternoon together before Martha headed back home on Saturday morning.  Friday had been a fairly uneventful day marked by continued progress in Lee’s healing.  Within a few minutes of taking this pic, Lee heard a rush of air and a strange sensation causing her to look down and realize that her new feeding tube had completely dislodged.  [...]

Just wanted to offer a midweek update since Lee made it home for the weekend and his been settling in and trying to catch up on a major sleep deficit.  Her first four days at home have certainly had their ups and downs with several recurrent bouts with the nausea and vomiting interposed with some precious time to hang out and watch movies with her mom.  The most encouraging parts for me have the gradual but steady return of her spunk and wit in the midst of tough circumstances.  [...]

In case you can’t see her in the picture because of the camouflage leggings or her attempts to hide behind the beautiful hibiscus plant that has nearly doubled in size while sitting in the window sill of Lee’s hospital room for the past four weeks, that is indeed her making the great escape on Friday afternoon.  While we would have preferred to have the nausea and vomiting completely resolved before she left the hospital, Lee managed to convince her doctors that continuing to battle those challenges would be less traumatic if she could do so curled up inn her own bed and PJs.  Thanks to all of you who were praying for Lee to reach this huge milestone![...]

I wasn’t sure how to title this one so I am just sticking with the “road home” theme, but it has taken a few unexpected turns over the past 12 hours.  As they worked to transition Lee from her IV meds back over to exclusively oral or “other” routes of administration she had an unfortunate return of the reflexive vomiting and chronic nausea that had plagued her a couple of weeks ago.[...]

Several important milestones were reached yesterday on the path to getting Lee home for the weekend.  She has now transitioned off all IV antibiotics and is on track to be on all oral medications other than her nutrition formula by Friday morning.  They will also remove her secondary central line and return to just using her implanted port, which removes another potential source of infection (and several fairly annoying additional tubes that tend to get caught on everything).  [...]

I’m happy to report that Lee continued to regain her strength and spunk on Tuesday, so it appears a double dose of “mom” has been just what the doctor ordered!  They more than tripled the previous day’s walking distance and were still smiling at the end (although through slightly gritted teeth).  Equally exciting was the progress on Thor’s weight loss program.  As you can see in the photo, he’s looking lean and less mean with only the IV nutrition remaining![...]

I’m thankful to report that Lee’s mom made it to town and they had an overdue reunion on Memorial Day.  Knowing how mischievous the two of them can be when left unattended, I put the hospital staff on alert to monitor for an escape attempt!  Ultimately they decided to behave and enjoyed the time to catch up after not seeing each other since before the pandemic kicked off last year.  [...]