She's home

It's early morning hours, especially since I'm trying to stay on Seattle time, though I'm on the east coast. Kirsten is resting upstairs after a light breakfast. Yes, she came home yesterday.

The doc was in just after noon. He scheduled a blood draw for 2pm. Would the hematocrit levels be stable? That would indicate the internal bleeding had stopped, and IVs could be discontinued. It might also mean she could go home! The young nurse, trying to see if we could go on our way, couldn't get blood at 5. But a lab technician finally came around at 5.45, just before the nursing review at shift change. Another hour or so... we waited for results - hoped, prayed, waited.

At about 7.30, the nurse pulled the IVs out, explained medications, and had Kirsten sign release papers. "You can stay another night if you like. The levels aren't normal yet, but I don't know what your normal is. The blood indicators are stable and slowly rising."

Kirsten and I looked at each other. Stay another night? Maybe not. We packed up her things, she pulled on her clothing, and wrapped herself in a coat and scarf. By then, she'd given her thank you card and a beautiful floral arrangement to the nurses, and the wheelchair was waiting.

I hurried back to the car: through three towers, down 11 storeys via elevator. (Forget the stairs, go faster! go faster! down the hallways, right, left, straight, left, almost there, there's the car, brrrr, hope I can find the entry where she is waiting.)

And there she was. An elderly volunteer helped her into the car and piled the bags into the back seat. "God bless you!" he said several times.

"I can't get over how many people say that here," Kirsten exclaimed. "It's really nice. You wouldn't hear that in Seattle." True.

The drive home together seemed to fly by, after over a week and 450 miles of solitary commuting back and forth to hospital. By the time the bed was stripped and remade, chamomile tea and rice cereal placed on the night table, devotions done with Kirsten and her roommate, back massage, and we'd settled into bed, it was midnight. Sweet sleep.

This morning, she's held down a light repast. I'll head to the pharmacy soon. They had closed minutes before I arrived last night. The smoker from the next condo is coughing on his porch, but I think there's time for a quick nap before the day kicks into high gear.

To all of you who are praying, thank you. Please keep Kirsten's full recovery in your prayers this week. She continues to heal, and we are asking God for a complete reprieve from the arthritis. "Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven," we prayed this morning as she got a foot massage. Amen.

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Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. Lamentations 3:22-26 NIV