It turns out that getting rid of cancer was the easy part for Missi. The hardest part has been the last 73 days. Missi has bravely battled mucusitis having a nurse sit by her 24 hours a day to going legally blind over this past month. Compared to the transplant, chemo was a breeze.
Missi's eyesight is slowly coming back, but she is still legally blind. She wears special contacts to protect her eyes from the dried mucus that forms near her cornea. When we visited her over fall break, I was surprised at how small she was and how my big sister was so vulnerable and needed us to constantly find her things for her. Allison and Natalie led her around by the arm and warned her of steps and cracks. We knew she was blind, but we didn't know what that meant.
Missi told me that it was ironic how she became blind for a month when she had always worried about my eyesight. When I was a little girl, I almost lost my eyesight. I wore a patch over my left eye to strengthen my right eye. I remember how hard I worked to see out of that eye - and how I wanted to cheat and open the patch "to sneak a peak.' I remember how tired the patch made me.
Now, Missi wears special contacts. These contacts protect her eyes from any jagged spikes of mucus or debris and allow her to use her own eyesight. Right now, she's at 20/60 in both eyes. And well, that's really not so bad.
After much thought, Missi's doctor gave her a pass to come home for the weekend. The time the doctor spent deciding was agony for her children. I knew they miss their mom, but I never really put myself in their point of view. How they must be frustrated with being bounced around from my house to grandma's house and their own home.
The best part is that Missi got to see it. Missi got to see her home with her own eyes - a sight she hadn't seen for THREE MONTHS. I could tell Missi's resolution to overcome her obstacles of "Graft v. Host" became stronger. Being home and kissing her children good night was really was the best medicine.
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