On this Good Friday, we remember three years ago to the day when Thomas was discharged home from the hospital. We went in expecting five days inpatient, but emerged a much-changed family full of much-changed individuals 132 days later.
At discharge, it felt similar in time to this year because, in 2021, Thomas came home five days before Easter--his having missed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and six family birthdays at home. On this anniversary of his discharge, we are also in Holy Week, so it feels familiar to me.
Thomas has slowly but surely grown stronger under the care of a dozen specialist doctors and their dedicated care. He had to learn how to roll over again, to crawl, and to walk. Since then, he grew to run, ride his bike, climb trees, and just a couple of months ago he became strong enough to swing along the monkey bars!
I lived with a prepared hospital "go bag" for a long time, but Thomas has needed hospital-level support during illnesses less and less.
- In his first 12 months home, he experienced: 5 inpatient stays and 2 ER-only visits.
- In his second 12 months home: 3 inpatient stays and 2 ER-only visits.
- In his third 12 months home: only 2 inpatient stays and 1 ER-only visit.
We are grateful for every day and know that nothing is promised to us with any of our children. My advice (to my fellow mamas in particular) is to hug all your children close and enjoy the Triduum together even if your domestic church celebrations need to be simple, store-bought, and in a home not as prissy perfect clean as social media influencers convince us is "real."
