Home Again, Home Again

Hi everyone.
Arnie was discharged from hospital Sunday afternoon. He continues to have intermittent nausea and pretty severe headaches but is medically very stable. His white blood cell count is improving, showing promising signs of early engraftment by the donor cells. The fever that brought him to hospital resolved quickly. Arnie will take antibiotics for another 10 days to ensure all stays well. He was very happy to leave behind the constant parade of temperature, blood pressure and heart rate checks, and the constant measuring of everything going into him and coming out. Many thanks to Sherri, his nurse on Friday & Saturday. She was originally from Vancouver and had just the perfect Canuck touch to ensure Arnie was on the road to recovery.

Early during his hospital stay, the dietician visited. She encouraged him to eat high protein and high calorie foods because his body needs adequate nutrition to heal. She also mentioned the hospital could provide intravenous feeding (total parenteral nutrition or TPN) if he couldn't eat enough. Arnie took this as a challenge. There was no way he was having TPN. The next day, armed with his antinauseant medications, he ate hospital meatloaf with potatoes & gravy and peaches with 'da heavy creme'. You should have seen the look of disbelief when the medical team made rounds the next morning. They should have forewarned Arnie about the grilled cheese sandwich though. Here's his description: "A thick slice of impossibly yellow orange cheese melted to glop texture between two grossly yellow slices of egg bread which were grilled enough to dry the bread out but not enough to change the colour. I was not upset when it joined the bannana in the 'lost' category. "

In Saskatoon, Arnie has breakfast with friends from our church pretty much every Friday morning. He told me he ordered bacon & eggs at 0705hrs Friday in honour of Men's Breakfast, and joined the group in spirit. Apparently Seattle bacon is incredibly salty. He did miss hearing Brad's corny joke of the week.

We've received many calls and notes filled with concern this week. Thank you so much. In a way, it distresses me that we should be a cause of worry for you. I was thinking about this, when I found this quote:
"When someone we love suffers, we suffer with that person, and we would not have it otherwise, because the suffering and the love are one, just as it is with God's love for us." ~Frederick Buechner

Thanks for climbing on board the bus & journeying with us.
Arnie & Brenda

P.S. If you want to be in touch via email, you can reach us at bqthiessen@sasktel.net