Things I WILL miss about the hospital

Yes, you read the title correctly. I'm beyond homesick at this point, but I found out that I'll be going home Monday! :) It was admittedly much more difficult to create this list than the previous one, but here are a few of the things I will miss about the hospital:

“Free” food: With a mom who raised me to never buy anything without a coupon and a father who we call “the human garbage disposal,” I’m not one to waste food. There have been few items on the LPCH menu that I have been able to eat without pain over the past few weeks, so instead of wasting perfectly good food, I order items my friends enjoy and send them in bags with Zack to give them. I now have enough saltine crackers to last a lifetime. Applesauce or Diet Pepsi, anyone?
Massages: If you read my blog post on hospital massages, you know how good the massage therapists are here. To say that going from paying nothing for twice a week massages to getting no massages (my immune system will be too low for me to go to public places for at least several months) will be a difficult transition would be a drastic understatement :(. Even when I am able to have them again, I’ll be paying at least $60/hour for a massage, since Zack will be hard-pressed to let me go back to questionable $20/hour massages in East Side San Jose!
Child Life: To quote myself in an earlier post, these are the people who “keep you from being bored out of your mind” while in the hospital. One of the women who works for Child Life has been stopping by a few times a week to see if I need anything and has so far provided me with beautiful floral wall decals, stickers, scrapbook supplies (I know all the guys reading this are extremely jealous at this point), a CD player, and Big Brain Academy for my Wii. Every time she comes, she asks if she can bring me anything else! How spoiled am I??
Having my sheets changed and room cleaned daily: Let’s face it; some of us (ahem, some of my former roommates...) go extreme lengths of time without changing their sheets. Even I, who in a strange way enjoy cleaning, don’t enjoy this task. Having someone do it for me, especially the particularly kind and competent house-keeping staff who work here, is something I will greatly miss.
The nurses and doctors: Most of the nurses and doctors on the stem cell unit are not only experts in their field, but are some of the kindest and most compassionate I have ever met. When you’ve had the lengthy and complex medical history that I have, that’s saying a lot. I almost cried when saying goodbye to one of the residents this week!
Unlimited supply of all your toiletry needs: Vaseline, toilet paper, cleansing wipes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap. What more could a girl want?
Walking my doctor’s dog: Twice since I’ve been here, Zack’s been able to walk one of my doctor’s Labrador puppy. Since I love animals and can’t play with them for months, in addition to the fact that I’ve felt like a prisoner in my room, he took the puppy up to my window to say hi through the glass! I think he likes me...:)