Day +18 Home away from Home

Friday Mom and I left the hospital!! Her numbers were good enough to leave, but because the ranch is 1 hour and 45 minutes away from the hospital and Dr. Bhushan's office, she has to stay closer.  This was something we had to agree to before they would do the transplant.

So many provisions from The Lord again as we found out there is a wonderful ministry in Dallas that provides apartments for a very minimal amount for families that need to stay close to the hospital for medical needs.  It was started by a Sunday school class from a church in Richardson in 1985.  The Ark House has apartments close to treatment hospitals that are fully furnished, with almost everything you need, set up for patients and their families.  What a neat ministry that we never even knew existed!  

By the grace of God, the morning of Mom's discharge from the hospital, one of these apartments became available.  We were able to leave the hospital and move right in.  It is only a mile from Medical City Dallas.  It is very comfortable and will meet Mom's needs very well.  I told her it isn't the ranch, but there are live oaks right outside her front door.

The apartment where Mom is staying.

The other thing we had to come to terms with was that Mom, for the next 100 days after the transplant, needed family or a care taker with her 24/7.  This did not need to be a nurse, but someone that could be with her, help her, and be available to take her to the doctor appointments, or hospital if something went wrong.  This was Mom's biggest hangup when considering her transplant.  She did not want to be a burden to her family, which we assured her she would not! But She didn't want any of us to have to be away from our families for long periods of time.  As she researched the options of "fill in care givers" for the times we couldn't be there, we found several companies that provided people just like this for situations like this.  We began to pray that God would provide the right fill in person or people.  Mom had lined up an interview with one of these companies, back in June.  We were anxious to see how this would work out.

But God stepped in, I love it when He does that!!  I was down visiting friends in Dallas in June, and went by one of my friend's mom's gift shops in Carrollton, The Vintage House, owned by Nan Walvoord.  We were catching up on family news and Ms. Nan asked me to fill her in on Mom's health.  I shared with her what we were facing and that Mom was about to start interviewing "fill in" care giver services in Dallas.  Nan said, "Oh JJ, I have the perfect person for that, Caralyn Cody!!" What?! She told me this was a dear friend of hers who she had gone to church with for 45 years.  Caralyn had stayed with their pastor's wife when she was sick with cancer and others too.  She was retired and had the time to do this.

She asked if I wanted to meet her, which I did, what could it hurt?? She called her and asked what she was doing right then.  Amazingly she said she was right around the corner at the post office and would stop by the store in a few minutes!! Unbelievable!! She came by a few minutes later and we visited.  What a precious lady.  I took a quick picture to send to Mom and they connected later on via phone and then lunch.  They both felt a peace, prayed about it, and knew that this was a God provision.  Thank you Lord, we could not have orchestrated this if we had tried!! Amazing how He brings His people into our lives at just the right moment! 

Caralyn Cody and Mrs. Nan at the Vintage House, the day we met.

So, back to Friday. That morning we woke up and saw that Mom's numbers had gone back down.  We were dissapointed and fighting discouragement.  Crud! We were so excited and then the drop! We stood there looking at each other and said, Ok, God has this, we will trust that the Lord gives and takes away, we will trust Him.  The nurse came in and asked if we were excited that we were leaving today.  We said, "well, we were excited but look at the numbers, maybe not, we will have to see what the doctor says." He started looking at some things on the computer and then realized he had mis-read the numbers, it wasn't a 2 but a 7!  Mom's numbers hadn't dropped, they had almost doubled!!! Oh praise God, we were so excited! I said, maybe that was our Isaac, that we had to be willing to give that up and let go, and then He gave it back to us!  Yeah, we were leaving!!! So we packed up from the hospital, and headed to the Ark House.  

Packing up!!

First time out off of floor 11 in almost a month!! Fresh air!

We got out of the hospital on Friday much earlier than we anticipated, so after getting Mom tucked into the apartment, I headed North toward Tulsa, where my youngest son was playing football, Friday night.  How fun to surprise him after the game!! What a sweet reunion.

Mom and Caralyn are getting settled into a routine, and Caralyn will be with Mom during the times when one of us kids cannot come stay with her.  We are so grateful to have Caralyn there, available, and Mom's main caregiver while we are away.  What a gift.

Mom and Caralyn.

The Ark House apartment were Mom is staying is very comfortable and will be a blessing to her to be so close to the hospital.  She will be going into the doctor 3-4 times per week for a while, as they will be checking her blood, making alterations to her medications, and giving her platelets if necessary, while her body begins to make the new bone marrow.  

Our biggest hurdles now and focus of prayer is:

1. That Mom would continue to heal and rebound from the Chemo.

2. That the new stem cells would start making strong new healthy blood.

3. That she would not suffer from GVHD (graft vs. host disease)

4. That she would remain infection free, since she is very vulnerable to any germs.

Mom's mailing address is:

Seville Apartments

Jan Janszen

Building J Apt. 1100 

10651 Steppington Drive

Dallas, TX 75230

Thank you again for praying for Mom. She is happy to be through this first hurdle and onto the next. 

Love,

JJ