As of Tuesday afternoon, I am a free woman! I’m so thankful! After 3 weeks in a hospital room, you start to question how well you can hold it together before you completely crack.

While inpatient, I had such a wonderful team of medical professionals. The nurses were the most brilliant and compassionate I’ve ever seen. Of course, Jonathan kept them laughing with his dry-erase board drawings and writings. We also had fun making the bed go as high as it could possibly go – it goes really high. And a bonus that puts a big smile on my face is that I’ve kept my hair!!!

My sister came for a visit (she’s the reason the bed went sky high – she was helping me with some cosmetic eyebrow plucking). The kids also loved visiting the hospital. I ended up with blue exam gloves on my feet, and my 4 year old guest had the best time ordering “room service”. He thought the personal pizza was great (although he dumped a packet of salt on it when I turned my back) and loved the can of soft drink that he drank proudly wearing sunglasses.

I guess I prefer to be less clinical with this update. I’m on track with the engraftment of my donor’s cells, my white blood cells are up to the normal range, and the platelets / red blood cells are trending upward. Currently I have to go into the hospital daily for labs, a fluid/ magnesium infusion and visit with a nurse practitioner or MD. This takes about 3-5 hours per day.

Thank you for your many prayers! Jonathan and I feel that the prayers are what have helped me to progress so quickly – I think I’m a little ahead of the game (and I continue to have lofty goals). I often try to rationalize why I’m coasting through this pretty well, but my gut is that all of your prayers have strengthened my body and have guided my medical team each day.

I hope all of you have a beautiful, blessed Easter. It’s such a wonderful season of renewal! Thanks be to God for His gift of grace for all people everywhere through his Son, Jesus. He is Risen!