They are now telling us we will be here through Monday. I counted up yesterday and as far as I can tell we will have had 25 days total in hospital, 7 procedures, 4 antibiotics, 5 CT scans, 5 trips to dialysis and I have no idea how many docs. I can find my way to Target and back and my list of hints if you are ever at Baylor is as follows:

Laundry can be done on the 12th floor of the Wadley Building – carry quarters for detergent and softener sheets – the machines are free

Computers are available in the Health Science Library but no one tells you this – you have to ask. Just go to the Truett Lobby and go down the hall towards the chapel. Turn left just before you get there and go through the double glass doors. Go to the end of the hall and turn right and you are there. They tell me the reason they don’t have a program with laptops for patients is because they haven’t figured out the wireless thing yet. (maybe you should hire yourself out for a huge consultation fee Tony!)

Parking is insanely expensive, but for five dollars you can purchase a package of five parking passes. This means a dollar each time no matter how long you are parked there and ordinarily it would cost you $3.50 a day.

Go to Target if you need personal items like excedrin or toothpaste – the pharmacy here is outrageous. You can get on Washington and go straight to it and come back on the same street which is wonderful since so much of the streets here are one way and you can go in circles for awhile seeing Baylor but not being able to get to it!

If you know someone is going to be here and the family members will be around a lot, a gift certificate from Starbucks might be a nice thing since there is one located next to the Truett cafe. They also have loadable cards in the gift shop for the Atrium Cafe and probably Truett as well.

The gift shop has prepaid phone cards and for ten bucks you can get 250 minutes. Cell phone service is iffy in some parts of the hospital and my little trac phone is worthless but the phone card has been very helpful.

That is my list of things to remember if I ever know ahead of time that someone is going to be coming here. I think it would be a great thing if Baylor had a little welcome packet available for people that had this info in it but at this point all I care about is coming HOME.

Yesterday my daughter said she cleaned out the refridgerator while my somn was gone to debate practice. Eveidently she did a great job because he had to do the dishes when he got home because she was at bible study and he was not to happy about it. I bet when we get a new dishwasher they will pay close attention to instructions on the operation and care of it. They have never been without a dishwasher before and this has been a learning experience. They both seem to managing the laundry thing okay as well and I plan to let that continue when we get home. I am planning on working and I think their laundry can be something they can continue to handle. Maybe some of this experience will end up being a good thing as far as their ability to cope on their own. My usual way of handling everything is to yell and complain and then do it myself. That has come to an end. I am letting go of some control!

We are ready to come home – sit on the back porch with the ceiling fan on and a glass of tea, turn on the sprinkler and watch the grass grow!