Finally Home!

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

Hi all! It’s Frankie checking in from HOME. After 10 nights and 11 days in Houston (and 8 of those in the hospital!), Tyler and I were finally able to return home last Friday evening. Though I had to face some difficult post-chemo side effects over the weekend, it felt so much better and easier to do it from the comfort of our apartment. We were reunited with our dog, Olive, who doesn’t understand why she can’t give “Mama” kisses while I go through treatment, but is the best companion while we spend a lot of time at home right now :) Each day since we returned home, I’ve felt a little stronger and more energetic and the nausea has subsided. I have started walking each day as my way to get out of the apartment and have made it a little game with myself to see if I can go a little further each day — I hit 1.6 miles today! As someone who greatly misses my daily workouts, it feels so good to move my body. I will continue to see what exercise my body can handle since it’s always been such an important thing for my mental health — which I need more than ever right now. I even felt up for trying to work yesterday and today, and honestly it felt really good to use my brain and have some normalcy and routine in my day. I won’t be going into the office during my treatment to limit exposure to any kind of infection, but thankfully in this post-COVID world, I am able to do my job just the same from home. Everyone at work has been so incredibly supportive — I really do feel so grateful for yet another community helping me during this difficult time. My personal chef, Tyler, has been cooking us delicious, healthy, and hearty meals to keep meat on my bones. I can almost feel my body saying thank you for each of those meals and am so appreciative for my rock helping me in yet another way. And lastly, I am so honored and appreciative of all the cards, packages, and deliveries we have received since we’ve returned home. Each one has put a smile on my face and given me a little more hope and strength. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all of the support — I truly couldn’t do this without you <3 For now, I’m going to appreciate my “new normal” at home until we head back to MD Anderson on the 15th…much love.

Notes on the pictures included:

1. Smiling on the final day of my 120-hour chemo treatment while on a walk around the block with my bags

2. Happily getting discharged from the hospital!

3. My two walking buddies on the path by the lake in Austin

4. Our new nightly routine: Nurse Tyler flushes my PICC line with saline to avoid infections