The Good and Bad News... Mostly Good.

It's November 23rd, a day after Thanksgiving and I have everything to be thankful for.  Tom was admitted under the understanding that he would probably be in here for three to five weeks!!!! He has been in for only 2 1/2 weeks!!! He seems to constantly defy expectations on length of stay, in a good way. 

My family came down to visit and my mother made a super delicious Thanksgiving meal (as always) and my dad made his fantastic apple pie! We had dinner at our house and then made a plate for Tom and brought the apple pie to visit at the hospital.  He actually ate about half of it, which was amazing compared to his appetite the rest of the week!

So relieved to have him coming home.  One, everything is better at home. Two, it will be nice to be to sleep in my own bed and have our dog to cuddle with. 

Brother number one was deemed not a marrow match.  That was quite the downer, however they reassure us that if brother two is also not a match, the registry should be no problem. Reassurance or not, it was still a super blow to the ego and we were a bit down about it yesterday.

Really thankful for all of the help we've had with Izzy these last couple of weeks so that I could spend my time at the hospital with Tom, instead of driving back and forth.
Best get packing, as we packed for 3-5 weeks and the trips to the car to load up our stuff is about to really suck. BUT if it means he's coming home, I will happily make 20 trips to the car!

Things to be Thankful For

This week is Thanksgiving and while I feel there is one large thing that I feel I should be rather unthankful for... in the spirit of the holiday, I should reflect on the things I am thankful for.

Things I'm thankful for:

• Our incredibly loving and supportive group of family and friends.
• Our parents whom do everything they can to help us out as much as possible.
• My family for coming down and making Thanksgiving dinner for us.
• My incredibly awesome neighbors, who have been taking care of Izzy for us so that I don't have to drive back and forth to let her out.
• Our awesome friends who spent two hours sorting out their son's legos, so that Tom could have the requested black and grey ones.
• A reliable and somewhat gas efficient car to drive the over 1,000 miles that I've driven in just the past two weeks!!!!!!
• My grandmother who sends me surprises in the mail, like books on dog psychology and wonderful Starbucks cards.
• The "girl time" I was able to have last week, a lovely day at the museum!
• The fact that we live in Northern California, which is a wonderful place to be if you're in the position we are... as far as healthcare.  I am so grateful/thankful that science has come so far and that there isn't just one place, but a few that are cutting edge and capable to ensure that my husband is going to make it through this.
• I am thankful that I work (or worked, rather) for Starbucks and because of that, I am enjoying a delicious cup of Thanksgiving blend brewed from the Family Room at the hospital... it's delicious.
• I am also thankful that this company (Starbucks) gave me lots of stock over the years and it's helped us quite a bit: a couple years ago it paid for our wedding, last year it paid for our move, this year it's going to help us through this awful time. Thank you Starbucks!
• I am thankful that this hospital has a "family room" in the bone marrow transplant ward, where we can store and cook food to make it feel more like home... and get out of his hospital room.

I am sure that I could go on and on, but the point is: Even when things seem super awful, there are ten times more things to be thankful for... and that's what we should celebrate.

PS. Originally I was going to write a long complaining blog about my terrible moody self... and then I wrote this and taught myself a little lesson in the works... SO I'm also going to use this as a post on the Leukemia Log... because I think it may be of assistance to other's who feel bitter about Tom's condition during this Holiday Season. Go Forth and BE MERRY (and Thankful)!