Sunday, June 23, 2013


Home, Sweet, Home

We made it home!! At the last blog I closed with saying that we were going to move our departure day up a week and it all worked great thanks to Meg!! Doug said that Meg had a plan and she sure did. Starting on Monday, the 10th. she went into action and proceeded to spend hours on the phone getting everything set up for Charlie when he arrived home. We are absolutely amazed at her and her ability to get things done!  She got a care/rehab facility set up here in Roseville, arrange transportation for Charlie to get to the airport - just took total care of about 101 things! I could not have done this without her!

She and Lucy arrived in Iowa City on the morning of the 12th and hit the ground running! While I was fretting about different things, she was getting things done. I actually was getting everything packed up and the apartment closed out. Fortunately, I was able to offload a car full of items to my school friend, Lynda, from Des Moines. Her granddaughter is going to have an apartment in the fall there at the University. I was so happy that someone could use some of the stuff that we had accumulated!

The 14th arrived and  finally after almost 18 months we headed home. Charlie handled the trip quite well. What a homecoming - our good friends, the Bells, picked us up along with a ton of luggage and home we went!! And....what a surprise we had! Our whole family  was in the front yard when we got home along with a big "Welcome Home" banner on the garage! To have everyone here was fantastic - all grandkids and of course, their parents!!! We were speechless!

The sad part was that Charlie had to go the rehab facility. He spent the weekend resting up and getting lots of love from the family! He started Physical Therapy on Monday and is making great progress! Either this Monday or Tuesday, he is being transferred to Sutter Rehabilitation here in Roseville. We have heard outstanding things about this place. He will be having 3 hours a day of PT in half hour increments.

I have spent the last week getting settled at home along with a couple of visits a day to see Charlie. It is just amazing to be home again and to see friends!

While our time in Iowa did not turn out the way we had hoped, we are very thankful for our time there.  We feel that Charlie had, without a doubt, the best medical care possible! The doctors and nurses that work at the University of Iowa Hospital are wonderful! We just cannot say enough about the quality of care that we had and the compassion  of everyone involved with Charlie's care. When one of his head doctors comes in and says with tears in his eyes, "I am so sorry that the transplant did not turn out for you" - this is real compassion!

The goal now is to get Charlie rehabilitated.  As far as the liver disease goes, he will be dealing with the same side effects that he had in Iowa City. But....we are so thankful to be home close to friends and much closer to our family!

Thank you for all of your prayers - we are very blest by all of you. We will keep you posted from time to time on how Charlie is doing!

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