Last night, I slept in a bed for the first time since I got to New York (I've been using my sleeping bag and a camper's foam pad, along with whatever hotel pillows have been available). Sean is down in northern Virginia; he'll be back in NYC this evening, so in the meantime I decided to take advantage of the temporarily-opened space.
Dad left for the hospital earlier this morning to continue working on arranging transport for Mom back to the DC-Metro area. After hearing iffy news about the Woodbine care center, Dad focused his attention on the National Naval Medical Center, which lies across the street from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where Mom had been visiting Dr. Fine for her second-line therapy. Dad thinks the NNMC will provide better, more conscientious round-the-clock acute care for Mom, given her respiratory needs. He and Mom have been through NNMC before for various exams, therapies, and MRIs; Dad has a very good impression of the place as a whole.
I woke up and decided to make grilled cheese sandwiches-- a logical choice, given the supplies we have. I'm doing my best to save the family's money by cooking from our own resources, but we've been adding to our expenses by buying extra materials as needed. Luckily, we've had no shortage of free fruit thanks to the two edible fruit bouquets that were delivered to us. Those have been quite a godsend. In any case, despite the extra supplies-- both purchased and delivered-- we're whittling down the original mess of food that I'd brought with us. Once most of the food is gone, I told Dad that I plan to take a break from cooking in order to sample some of the simpler, cheaper fare that New York has to offer.
Dad, meanwhile, would like for Mom to go home on Monday. We have no way of guaranteeing that this will happen, but I can understand Dad's impatience. We didn't come up to New York just to stick Mom in an ICU; we had come up with a specific mission, which failed. At this point, all we want is for the final hill of the roller coaster to go as smoothly as possible for Mom. If NNMC can help with that, then good.
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Marathon
12 years ago
1 comment:
Our love to all of you. Suk is being cared for well, but it appears you guys are totally exhausted--physically, mentally, and emotionally. I'm glad, Kevin, that you actually got a bed for a night--obviously you needed the rest a real bed can provide.
From your on-line descriptions, I'm tending to agree with Ned on Bethesda as the logical choice. They would be better equipped and staffed to handle Suk's current needs than Woodbine-type facilities when you have a choice (which you do).
As you travel this part of the journey, be alert for glimpses of presence God may give you en route. Until we had our vigil with my mother, I had no awareness of the ways that God appears at times like these. Since then, I have learned of many others who have discovered God's presence with them on similar journeys. God is with you and these times of transition are apparently times when God allows us to "see" in new ways and experience God's presence more profoundly than in our normal living. Perhaps that's God's way of giving us a glimpse of what's to come--or at least a sense of peace about where our loved one is going--until the time when we all will meet again in God's "mansion" with many rooms we call heaven.
Prayerfully, Mary W.
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