The Hospital

We went through so much here, I hardly even know where to begin. Our Stella was born here and our Margot was lost here, just a few rooms down from one another. Years from now, when we reflect on this delicate place in the foothills of the San Gabriels, I imagine this is what we will remember more than anything. But for the fourteen days we lived here, it has been agony and triumph, nurses and specialists, movies and visitors and cries of grief for Margot and desperation for two fist sized kidneys to regenerate.

A few pictures to remember these long, tiresome days:


[our room in the coronary care unit: most of the blood and platelet transfusions happened here, as well as our time with Margot]

[digits and catheters]

[the board in room 1422]

[view from room 1422. we spent hours sitting in front of this window, looking at the mountains that we have hiked and played in for the past six years]

[the hallway where our daily walking took place from day 7 to 14. we walked at least 20 laps a day down this hallway]

[dialysis. those two tubes are running into kari's neck]

[dialysis machine]

[the bereavement card outside our room, signaling to those who entered that we were in mourning]

[visitors. our families and friends came up in the morning, afternoon and evening to bring food and help us pass the time. we couldn't have done it without them]

[stella + eisley + sam]

[our wonderful, loving, tender dr. wu. he delivered stella and margot and shared in our grief more than we could have imagined]

[kari + stella, sharing a legs crossed moment]

[our wonderful nurse sheena removing the catheter from her neck. no more dialysis! kidneys are healing. we longed for this moment]

[perhaps the defining picture of our entire stay here. when kari was fighting for her life, she remembers wanting to simply feel the sun again. every day on our walks together, we would stop for several minutes in this window, letting the beautiful sun rain down on our bodies and our grief]