Home Sweet Home

This post is #17 in a year-long series ... Through this series of posts I plan to share our family's experiences during our 17-year-old daughter's year-long battle with brain cancer, which began in February of 2008. My desire is to process through the events of that year from the perspective that a decade of time has brought ... for myself, really. But if you'd like to follow along, you're welcome to join me.

March 2, 2008

March 2nd was a big day because we finally got to come home from the hospital after being admitted on February 21st.

I remember the dizzying feeling of bringing Hannah home from the hospital for the first time after she was born ... How could these hospital people really trust us to care for this newborn baby when we didn't have any idea what we were doing?!   The feeling as we arrived home that day was somewhat similar ... after all, Hannah had just had major brain surgery less than a week before!  I wasn't sure if we were equipped to deal with this on our own.  Thankfully, she did very well, and was thrilled to be home.

I'll let my email from that day share the story ...

What a wonderful blessing to be home this evening! Just being home has helped Hannah (and all of us) so much! Brad’s parents and his sister and brother-in-law had the house ready for our homecoming, including balloons and welcome signs for Hannah. They even did a “While You Were Out” to Hannah’s bedroom while we were gone. They fixed a good lunch for us before heading home. It’s great to be back to just our family again—no nurses, no doctors, no IV’s, etc.

Brad has completely recovered from his little bug, but is planning to stay home from work for a few days to make sure Hannah and I are all settled in. Bethany is also well enough to go back to school tomorrow, so things are well on their way to getting back to normal.

We will go back to Little Rock later this week for removal of Hannah’s stitches, and hopefully will find out then what, if any, further treatment is needed. She is really looking forward to getting those stitches out, because then she will be able to wash her hair. We are ready for visitors again, although Hannah is a little self-conscious about her appearance since she hasn’t been able to wash her hair for so long.

As a temporary side effect of the surgery, Hannah has lost the ability to look up with her eyes. For example, in the hospital, she was unable to look up at the wall-mounted TV while she was sitting in a chair. She was able to lift her eyes immediately after the surgery, so the surgeon says he knows she is still able to do it, but the swelling at the site of the surgery has caused her to lose that ability. This is apparently a common side effect of surgery in this area of the brain, but is almost always temporary.

We can never say enough how thankful we are for your support and your prayers. God has really revealed His love for us through you.

God is good, all the time.
Brad and Jill

And here's one more contribution to the memories from that day, directly from Hannah's Facebook page.  You can see that her mind was on practical matters ... :)

"Wow, I lost 10 pounds and I am finally home! It feels great! I wish I could wash my hair though..."