Lily came home from the hospital yesterday afternoon. Larisa says that within thirty minutes of arriving, she had more color in her cheeks and was walking around the house more than she had walked at the hospital the whole time. Being home makes such a difference.

A few days ago Larisa told us about one particular doctor at the hospital. This doctor is one of the main oncology doctors who had not been on duty for the first couple weeks Lily was in the hospital. As soon as she walked in, she said something like, “Why is she on an IV? Is she able to drink fluids?” When she got an affirmative answer, she ordered the IV unhooked except when Lily needed medication or something else through her port. What a wonderful thing that was for Lily! No more dragging that cumbersome IV pole with her to the bathroom. It was a wonderful step towards health.

On the way home from school yesterday - on the way to seeing Lily home for the first time since December 1st, I asked Sophie if her mom and dad had talked to her about how the steroids would make Lily fussy, and how Lily might get upset easily and when that happened Sophie needed to remember that it would be the medicine talking - and not something that she had done to upset Lily. Sophie said that yes, they had talked to her about it.

Later, the girls and I were coloring pictures, and Lily got a little angry about which markers could be used and which couldn’t. Sophie just switched to an “acceptable” marker and kept working. She didn’t argue, she didn’t get her feelings hurt, and she didn’t get angry. Lily settled back down and we ended up having a nice time together coloring our pictures. When Lily finished her picture, she carefully wrote on the back: “To Sophie, From Lily.”

One thing I want to remember is that when Sophie and I got to their house, they’d been home from the hospital only about 30 minutes. Lily was settled on the sofa with a blanket over her - the prayer shawl under her - and Bogey, their little Italian greyhound, snuggled next to her. Bogey had missed Lily so much. He would disappear, and they would find him under the covers on Lily’s bed. Lily felt a lot of pride at Bogey’s obvious devotion to her yesterday afternoon.

Lily’s teacher had her videotape an introduction to the second grade program since she wasn’t able to be there in person. Lily taped her intro the other day in the hospital. The program was yesterday. It was so tender and sweet. One little boy asked me later why she rubbed her face and nose in the video. The answer was that the medicines make her face itch and feel funny. So she naturally rubs her face a lot. I don’t think she is aware that she does it - and we won’t say anything so she won’t become self-conscious about it. Once she stops the steroids, the face rubbing will stop.

Lily is home from the hospital - and that definitely puts a smile on my face.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 6:07 am and is filed under Lily's Leukemia Journey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.