Look Who's Home!

April 5th Brandi moved from ICU to a regular room!  

We were so excited to see several more of the tubes she'd been connected to had been removed as well.  They let her get out into the sunshine and she got a little pink on her cheeks. One friend had commented that sunshine is like candy for Brandi and I couldn't agree more!

 She was starting to use her phone more and slowly rejoining the social media world.

 I brought my big boys by one night to visit Brandi and they were totally entertained by the gloves and "capes" they got to wear when they visited.  Brandi was totally laughing at them and was even teasing with them.  She told Wes it was too bad she thought she was probably a little too old for him.

 It seemed like every day she was feeling a little stronger and able to do a little more. She was starting to look like herself again.  Last Friday they finally decided she was ready to go home.  It had been 6 weeks since she had been admitted to the hospital.  

 Brandi was anxious about coming home.  She was still very weak and was barely strong enough to get herself to the bathroom.  The PIC line had finally come out and she was slowly starting to eat real foods again.  As exciting as it was for her to be coming home, she knew she still needed care around the clock and definitely wouldn't be resuming regular household activities for quite a while still.  In fact she  has a hospital bed in her living room downstairs because she was unable to get all the way up to her room.  

She is still so tired, on tons of medications, and wears out easily.  Even little things like responding to text messages, or visiting with everyone who she sees if she makes it out to part of a baseball game or a kids awards ceremony is not only exhausting and a bit overwhelming.  It will all come in time, but right now she just needs to hunker down and focus on rehabilitating.

I'm working on making her a chart with a list of physical activities she can do daily and mark to see her progress.  She's walked around her cul de sac twice now and has almost made it up the stairs.  Today it was easier to do than yesterday.  We did McGyver up a ribbon that reaches from her bed rail up to the fan cord yesterday so that she could turn it on and off by herself.  Today her mom added another one for the light cord.

 I've never been so happy to watch someone eat as I was on Monday when I watched her down two big ole tacos and a mound of sour cream, followed by a tangerine.  She is eating regular meals and is getting stronger and stronger. The hope is that she will be well enough in the next week or two to travel to Michigan to finish recovering in her mothers home and surrounded by all of her family.  

People are always asking me what they can do for her and here are my thoughts.  Brandi is a fighter and she is going to recover from this. She loves all of the messages and support that she has received and has been moved to tears by everyone's support and concern several times, but just know that she really isn't up for responding much yet.  Don't feel badly if she doesn't respond to a text or a message on her FB wall, in fact let her know she doesn't need to. And secondly lets keep doing what we can to spread the word and work on raising funds to help her take care of the medical expenses.  She does have insurance, but it won't come anywhere close to covering multiple surgeries and countless hospital stays since December 10th of last year, and most recently this last 6 week stay.  And last of all just keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers.  It's been amazing what a support is has been!