100 Days

100 days. It seems like every time you turn on the TV lately, you hear, “100 Days.”
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It’s been 100 Days since Madeline went into the OR for her transplant. 99 days since she left that OR.

It’s been 1 week since she left Pittsburgh.

One week since she’s been home.

It’s been 100 days, but it's been the little things. As Madeline said this week, “When you return to the place where you lived for so long, you realize how sick you were.” Madeline no longer needs to have a chair waiting half way between her favorite chair and the bathroom and the bed and the bathroom so she can stop, sit, and catch her breath (keep in mind, the total distance from the bed or chair to the bathroom was about 20 feet -- and that was with oxygen!) For the first time in over 3 years, she’s been able to walk to the mailbox. As her friends come to visit and welcome her home, they remark about how she greets them at the door, rather than just telling them to come in as she sits in her chair.
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She has walked through Stop & Shop, she has walked down the hall to the doctor’s office, she’s enjoyed lunches with good friends, and she has had her 3 year old grandson, Matty, ask her to play hide and seek -- all things which most people would have normally taken for granted, but we now fully appreciate.

Yesterday Jim and Mad were able to go to their grandson Danny’s lacrosse game. Today they returned to their Sunday routine -- 11:00 Mass followed by their “Lunch Bunch” at Twin Willows. Their friends were overjoyed to see them and were ready to welcome them home.