Well, Bethany is home. Thank God! Thank you, everyone, for your prayers that have brought her home. Today was quite the whirlwind. Slow, but windy. I had actually planned on going to work today; that is, until I woke up. When I went to bed last night, everything was calm, Bethany immediately went to sleep. And slept, she did. Through the entire night. Thus, I did, too. That's always a good thing.
First thing in the morning, we learned that she would be having her pic line put in. Then, we waited.....and waited. Bethany ate breakfast and then slept and slept, and then slept some more. Goodness, now that her steroids were changed, she is finally able to sleep.
I had heard that we just may be going home today, however, it wouldn't be until after she received her evening antibiotics--8:00 pm. Just in case, I packed everything up. Pastor Tim and Aunt Jodi visited today, as did Nate, Bethany's boyfriend. She hadn't seen Nate in quite some time, and he was definitely a pleasant surprise. We prayed with Pastor Tim, and chit chatted with Aunt Jodi, until Bethany fell asleep again. And then we proceeded to wait some more. Because we had been transferred to the Neuro/Pallative care room, sometimes we felt as if we had been forgotten about. We hadn't, but we just weren't familiar with actually being left alone. Ha ha.
While Pastor Tim and Jodi were visiting with us, I received a phone call from the home health care agency that would be assisting me in taking care of Bethany and her newly placed pic line. They said that they would be coming to the house tomorrow morning at 11:00 am. I mentioned that we were still at the hospital and that we weren't even sure that we would be coming home. She said that the hospital had called her and that we would, in fact, be home by this evening. Well, good to know.
So, I meandered my way to the nurses' station, and yes, the home health aide was correct. They were preparing to discharge Bethany. Yikes. Although we were mentally ready, we weren't physically ready, as we had actually been waiting for someone to give us a 'heads up.' Hmmmm.
It was around 4:30pm, and Joe left to go pick up Jonathan from school. The nurse came in and said she was going to discharge us. So....I quickly called Joe back and handed him some stuff to take out to the van with him. Quick thinking on my part, if I do say so myself. Anyway, sure enough, they took out her last IV, handed us 7 prescriptions, explained a little about the pic line, set up future doctor appointments, and hugged us, wished us well, etc. Whew!
What a day! And off we went, no looking back. Au Revoir. Adios. So long, farewell. We went straight to the Kroger pharmacy drive through to drop off Bethany's prescriptions; I figured I would drop them off, take Bethany home, unload the van and get her situated and then go to pick up the prescriptions. When we got to the drive up window, I mentioned that there were so many medications because we were just on our way home from the hospital.
What happenned next totally made me cry. And then cry some more. It touched Bethany, as well. The girl (Elise Hoefflin) at the pharmacy window, looked into our van window and said, "Oh my gosh. I go to your church, and we have all been praying for you. The Morph (college age youth group) group were just talking about Bethany and her plight. We read your blog daily, pray for you constantly, and am soooooo happy to see you going home. In fact, I am making food for you Wednesday." WOW! We felt so blessed and loved. And isn't that truly what life is all about? Feeling blessed and loved and returning such?
Both Bethany and I have been struggling in that area lately, and our encounter with this young woman of God was definitely a Divine encounter. Not only did we need it, but it also showed her, firsthand, the miracle of prayers answered.
When I returned to pick up the prescriptions, I waited in a long succession of cars to pick up prescriptions through the drive through window. When I finally got up to the window, there wasn't anyone behind me. Elise was at the window, and said that she had rushed our order and had hoped that we weren't in the long line. I told her that it felt rather nice to wait in the van in silence. Bethany was home sleeping, and I was out to get the scripts, pizza and movies for a quiet night at home. She also said that her younger sister had a very similar surgery as Bethany. She then began to relay her sister's story to me. Wow! God truly is in the miracle working business.
Again, both Bethany and I feel truly blessed to have as many friends and family and people we don't even know praying for her and for her recovery. It is only by the Grace of God, through your prayers, that she is home tonight.
As soon as we came home, Bethany went straight to bed. Did not pet the dogs. Did not use the restroom. Did not put anything away. Did not go to the refrigerator. Etc. Straight to bed and there she stayed all evening. Joy came home from studying at Carlson Library, and Jonathan came home from filing a police report at UT, and Bethany stayed in bed. She and Jonathan talked a bit while Joy and I did the same. Then, she resumed sleeping and Jonathan, Joy and I watched a movie.
Bethany did just awake for some food. That's good. I can tell she will be going right back to sleep. She also took some of her medications. Tomorrow morning, the home health aide will be coming to show us how to administer the IV antibiotics. That should be interesting. Depending upon how things go, I plan on going to work in the afternoon. As of now, Joe is working, and Joy has a meeting and then work, but I hoping to work something out with someone.
Again, thank you so very much, and I can't wait to tell you what tomorrow holds for Bethany Rose. I'll post later in the afternoon!!!!!!
Much Love, Shari and Bethany
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