Big Step

I am reminded that 4 years ago this month we were in the final stretch of Joshy's 6 months in patient hospitalization for Aplastic Anemia.  Joshy's treatment was not responding as well as we had hoped, but it was responding ever so slowly, so the doctors were working toward moving to weekly outpatient visits.  We were finally able to go home for over night visits.  We were busy making some adjustments so that home would be a safe place for a boy with a severely depressed immune system & platelets that were still requiring weekly transfusions to keep going.  It was an exciting, but terrifying time.

One thing that I noticed when we transferred to the Cancer Center, was how much people made their room into "home".  Most patients had their own TV & DVD players because it was cheaper to buy them than pay the hospital rental fees for months on end.  Most patients had some sort of dresser and/or bookshelf or other storage.  All the parents, who were required to be there 24/7, had some sort of cot or bed.  We had baskets for this and that.  Anything, really, to make a sterile hospital room a little more friendly & personal.  *Joshy's 4 months in the cancer center was on the short side - some of the patients were in upward to a year, or more.

After Joshy was discharged, I still kept our "dresser" packed along with a small suitcase with essentials: convenient foods, change of clothes, laundry detergent, COFFEE. These things were put in the car each and every time we make a trip for a check up or ER run, because we never knew when he would be admitted for transfusions or to sort out wonky lab results.  When Joshy finally graduated to checkups every 2-3 weeks I stopped packing the car with the "to stay" things, unless he was noticeably ill, but the "hospital stuff" still remained in the garage, ready to be tossed in the car at a moments notice.  Or to be picked up by a friend who could bring it to us.

Today, I took a BIG step...

I emptied the hospital dresser!  It wasn't as stocked at it was at one time, but it still had several basic things we had used everyday when we were in hospital.

 

The dresser has now been re-purposed into storage in the hall coat closet.

I pray it can stay there a good long time.  I pray it never needs to be re-purposed into a hospital dresser again.  I also pray for those families who are needing hospital dressers.