Day 124--Back in the Fort

When Torger was in the hospital for weeks at a time going through chemo, and then the transplant, he learned how to stare straight ahead for long spans of time. He said that it was a constant challenge to stay busy and mark time, so when he reached the point where he couldn't read or watch any more television, he'd just sit and stare. He believes that others who have spent long periods of time in the hospital will understand this experience...and the need to just make time pass when the days are long and slow. This is one reason that Torger was so responsive to Dr. Tse's requirement that he rinse his mouth with saline or peroxide every 15 minutes to prevent mouth sores...it gave him a way to break up his day into smaller chunks.

But our post-transplant experience was completely different. Neither of us can believe how quickly the time has passed. We moved into the hotel with stacks of books, magazines, movies, music, and games that we thought we'd need to make the time pass...but we hardly made a dent in the pile. Having almost daily appointments at the hospital set the parameters around which our days revolved, and when we weren't there, I was working from our room, or we were running to the grocery store or making the trek into downtown Denver to get to the bank. We had to time our activities around both Torger's medication and infusion schedule and the housekeeping staff, who needed to get in to clean and maintain the room. (I don't know why it never occurred to me before that hotels don't just provide maid service to make us comfortable...they also need to make sure their rooms aren't getting trashed! We agreed with the hotel from the beginning that they could come in three or four times a week, if not daily, to at least make sure the trash was emptied.) We celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, CSU's Bowl win, my friend Stacy's wedding, the birth of Jean and Ted's grandbaby, the November elections, and Obama's inauguration in the hotel. We didn't watch the Super Bowl there, but we could have if we'd wanted to. Our baby niece, Bea, learned to say "aunt" and "uncle" while we were there. We cooked hundreds of meals with the two-burner range and toaster oven, and I learned to never, ever again complain about the lack of counter space in my kitchen at home. We learned a lot from the experience, and now we're home...sort of. We're actually in the Hilton in Fort Collins (using some of our now vast collection of hotel rewards points) while I finish getting the house cleaned and organized. Marcy, Brandy, and Alex were up again yesterday from Denver to vacuum, hang drapes, and put furniture back where it belongs, but there's still a lot to do before Torger can stay in our house. I should be able to wrap it all up so we can sleep in our own bed tomorrow night for the first time in four months. And I'm sure, once we're there and settled in, it will seem normal again in no time at all. But I think our definition of "normal" and "time" will never be quite the same again.