In just a couple of hours Joanne will have been home for two days. I am realizing that we have a lot of ground to cover before we get to our "new normal." I think I expected that, so no big shock, but it is definitely different being here than being at the hospital. No duh, right?
Friday night Joanne didn't sleep well. There was a situation with one of her prescriptions that didn't get filled and it is the slow release painkiller that she takes before bed. Well, we thought we would give it a try without it and just use her regular daytime pain med. Bad idea! She was up multiple times. So we got the prescription filled for her night time med yesterday and it seemed to help.
My parents came for dinner last night and we had a nice visit. They brought dinner which is always a plus and took the girls out on the town for a few hours which they seemed to really enjoy. If they are home the girls are working on getting their rooms put back together after 4 months away. So getting out for a little bit was a welcomed relief for them.
Then we got Joanne a shower, which she loves. Papa got the whole thing set up with grab bars, a new shower head and a great shower bench. So Joanne can just sit in there and let the hot water pour over her. After sub par showers for the last four months, a genuine hot shower for as long as she likes is a real treat.
This morning Chef Emma made Joanne some great looking oat meal and she got her meds all taken. Yesterday she took meds on an empty-ish stomach and couldn't keep them down so today we called in the big guns. If oatmeal can't qualify you as having a full stomach then I am at a loss. Hopefully her meds will stay down.
Off to church this morning if all goes well. Joanne loves to go to church--last weekend was her first time back in 4 months and she had such a good and meaningful time. So she is determined to go again today. Hopefully the car sickness will stay at bay--she has some medication that is supposed to help with that. Our church is about 20 minutes away so it is a bit of a trek.
Tomorrow we are going to get our handicapped hang tags for the car! We are going to have awesome parking places for the next months! We have gone out a couple of times to run errands in the last 48 hours and it is a real chore to have to try to park in a normal space--not much room to maneuver the wheelchair. So being up front with a little extra space is going to be great!
We have had a few people come over and work on the back yard, getting plants put in and it is looking really good. The Franklins came yesterday and did a bunch of herbs...
OK, that was an hour break to get Joanne ready for church. It takes a while to get stuff done! I think God is going to be teaching me a lot about patience and pace of life over the next months. I think I have probably been pretty selfish with my time: I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it. But that has changed. Now I am here to serve. Not too bad of a lesson to learn :)
OK, another 5 hours have passed! We went to church and then to the mall to try and get a new iPod case for Audrey. Church was good. Things at the mall went fine, but it is clear that we are going to be working at a different speed for the time being. There is no such thing as a "quick trip."
We are now at Gran and Papa's for Sunday dinner. Audrey is at home because her room is still a disaster and I have her locked in there until it's spotless. After dinner we will be back to the house for a nice long shower for Joanne and final preparations for this we. We will undoubtedly learn a lot about this new life is going look like!
Prayer requests:
1. This is a discouraging time for Joanne. She still needs so much help with things and she wants so badly to be independent. She'll get there but it's going to take time. We all need patience.
2. That home health-care will get set up soon and smoothly.
3. We would love to get to our "new normal" soon than later. If we could get some scheduled stuff worked out that would be great!
Toben