Saying Goodbye was Sweet

Nurse Ginney with Melissa just as we were leaving.

Tara - the lady who worked Melissa over the most and taught her things that will hopefully keep her out of the hospital for a long time.

We left Denver at 10 am, saying goodbye to Tara (Melissa's respitory therapist who was incredibly helpful), Nurse Ginny (who was very kind and signed us out fast!), and drove home. Returning at 7:30pm, Cowley looked like heaven. My house was clean (thanks to Emily, Michael and John working on it) and my bed felt wonderful. Melissa found that her room had been decorated by her friends and was very excited. She really missed them and had looked forward to every email and post that they sent her, so thanks to Mikayla, Sarah and Maddy for being such good friends to Melissa.

Today Melissa is anxious to go to school and hopes to, but we have to wait for the people in Powell to come and train us on how to care for her picc line and administer IV drugs for the next week. After that she's good to go. Thanks to everyone who sent us posts, called us, and feed my children who were left here at home. It's good to know we have great neighbors, friends, and family who will come to our rescue when needed. We were definitely blessed and served this past week.

We're here and have set up camp

After arriving at the hospital at 9:30 am, and going through a security check, admissions, then being led to the top floor of the hospital to room 908, we started hauling out the suitcases, bringing in the pillows and blankets, and lugging up the totes full of "things to do". Yes - the Bernhisel's hit the hospital at full speed and took over as much of the place as allowed. We know where to find ice water and pop, play Wii with the other residents here, get free cupcakes for the taking, and who the guy on call is to fix the TV/X-BOX in our room. Life is good! Now we just wait for all those IV's Melissa has had today to kick in and we're excellant. This is a picture of Melissa with Dr. Wagner, our favorite guy here in Colorado. He works with her in Billings and checks on her here, so he's really the one in charge of her care.

Melissa gets it done!

Melissa ran her first cross country meet this Friday also. She had some tough competition but managed to come in at 16:53 and recieved the 8th place ribbon. We were so excited for her to run so well and never give up. The weather was perfect, rainy and cool, and she never had to walk.