Dear Family and Friends,
Mission accomplished! John has just moved from ICU to 2453. We now have a room of our own. A bed for John and a pull-out couch for me. And a television to catch up on the news. No monitors, though nurses will be administering medicine and monitoring John. I have permission to regulate the oxygen which is still John’s lifeline.
It took longer than we expected. There were no vacancies for rooms yesterday so we waited and waited, and came up empty. John had one last poor night of sleep in ICU and I went back to the guest house. Today we went into advocacy mode. At noon we were told we had a bed and at 3:00, after much preparation, we made the move. John feels liberated! Our room has a window that looks out over the hospital and beyond to a view of New Delhi — John’s first look at his surroundings and daylight in close to 3 weeks.
Our pulmonologist told us that we would start John walking in a few days and that he was aiming to have us home for Christmas. For those who are cautioning us about traveling too soon, Dr. Chawla is a very careful and conservative physician and has our complete confidence. We are in consultation with John’s two doctors in Washington. Our travel insurance has a medical coordinator in Delhi, who arranged the air ambulance from Nepal to India and who will be arranging our travel to the US. We will have oxygen and depending on John’s condition, a medical escort. Right now we’re into celebrating this milestone and taking a day at a time. John still has a long slow recovery ahead of him. We can tell you, we won’t be flying till John is ready.
Tomorrow I hope to get some printing time and print out this week’s emails for John to read. It feels strange to be more than half way through Advent without having been to a worship service, but we have been practicing watching and waiting. Our hospital is named Indraprastha Apollo Hotel. Indraprastha is the original name for Delhi and means “God dwells here.” I have bonded with the other families near us in intensive care, keeping watch and waiting with their loved ones. We have felt God with us though all your calls, emails, and prayers.
Barbara — and the newly liberated, John
Posted on behalf of Barbara Gerlach (gerlachmack@erols.com).
You can also read John and Barbara’s story and leave messages at their CaringBridge site.
