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Sunday, May 13, 2012

Back to the Hotel

After months of living alone in a hotel room in Indianapolis while waiting for a liver transplant, Dad actually was somewhat attached to the particular residence hotel that he stayed. A hotel is certainly not the same thing as home, but my father spent most of his hours and days in one hotel room. In fact, not only did he get used to the environment, but the staff at the hotel all were a part of his daily life beginning on January 1st as well.

It is a strange environment at this hotel, as so many guests are waiting for various treatments at the hospitals nearby and are generally pretty sick. I suppose that the hotel staff get used to the unique nature of the guests and develop a different type of relationship. A few of the employees at the hotel frequently asked about how my father was doing as I was running back from or on my way out to the hospital. Once Dad was somewhat awake after this incredible ordeal, he recalled to me that some of the front desk folks would even call up to his room to check on him periodically before the transplant. Given all of that, I was not too surprised that Dad was actually looking forward to returning to the hotel after his long stay in the TICU, the Organ Transplant Unit, and eventually the rehab facility.

On Friday morning, Dad finally left all of the inpatient hospital settings behind and came back to the hotel. Here he is in the standard position with CNBC on the TV and in his recliner. We still have a long recovery ahead of us, but it's certainly nice to see progress in the form of a little comfort...

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