Recovery is sweet!

But..slow.

I have fantastic news in that I have not thrown up since before I was in the hospital, which if you're counting with me, means six full days!

I was not however anticipating how long it would take for me to get my strength back. I hear people say it takes them months to recover, but since (believe it or not) my vomitting was somewhat controlled by medication from the get go, I figured I would be better off than those vomitting ten to twenty times a day.

Tonight, I get to fill in for our music director Marsha and play Holden Evening Prayer. I am super excited as I don't often get to do this sort of thing and being as that is where my education, heart and soul really sit I know it will be a good thing both spiritually and emotionally for me. I have practiced the service at home and am able to make it through, but to test my stamina with things like walking, standing and people, Stephen took me to Walgreens last night to pick up my own perscription.

When we first entered the door, it was rather crowded for Walgreens on a Tuesday night. Stephen leaned down and said "Betsy, these are people." To which I replied: "You mean they aren't just healthcare workers?" Stephen: "No, they aren't going to stick you." Betsy:"Oh. huh. wow."

I was excited to actually get to pick out Stephen a birthday card, although I probably could have found a better one had I been able to stand and look a little longer. I could tell I was tired. By the time we got the medicine and got home, it was about 6:30pm and we needed to call Nancy to wish her happy birthday. (It's a wild month in the Friedrich household...a June baby was planned for sure!) We left her a voicemail and unfortunately I didn't stay up to talk later because by 6:45 my eyelids were closing themselves. I went to bed and was out until about 8:00am or so this morning and then had a mid-morning nap until around 12:30pm. Really, I'm a good sleeper and have always needed my sleep, but that is crazy. We're talking hard hours of sleep...

So as you can probably tell, the mundane of the mundane are still very tiring. I'm getting scared about traveling home for Christmas but as long as I still get the go-ahead from the doctor, I'm hoping I can make it.

The frightening thing about HG is that it can rear its ugly head sometimes even when you're doing all you can. That probably speaks to why it was so hard to get it under control in the first place. It makes me nervous I may get sick and not be near any of my doctors or the hospital nurses that have already treated me and know me well. We had such a fantastic experience at BSA, I really admired the nurses there. But as I continue to try to eat more each day (no where near a normal diet, but it's staying down and that's all that counts), I try to live each day in the present and think there is no reason to think I'll return down that ugly path again.

In other random HG trivia...I found out it is believed that author Charlotte Bronte died from HG. Granted that was a LONG time ago, but it's one more reason to give thanks for modern healthcare!

Thanks again to all you who have continued to pray and walk alongside me - figuratively speaking!