Q: Could you describe how you and your family members, friends, etc. adjusted to your return to the home environment and how the family culture may have changed?
A: After such a nightmarish (for lack of a worse word, I feel somewhat restrained to remain polite) hospital stay, for me at least my return home and the any adjustment that had to be made was a smooth one. To be fair, I suspect not rushing my return helped quite a bit. 2 or 3 months before I was eventually discharged I was able to go home every weekend. So my return wasn’t hard on my family with respect to me not being there one day and being there the next. My family and support staff had run through the drill a bunch of times well before I actually came home. And I’d imagine that greatly helped with the transition for them, as well as myself.
I’d think my family’s culture changed drastically. My family didn’t have to travel so damned far, each and every day too see me. As screwed up as this may sound I felt in many ways it was easier, if not better having me at home. But I am certain of that which mattered most to me, at least. The unmistakable feeling my family was relieved to have me at home.
As for friends, I surmise they weren’t too far removed from that feeling. If anything, I was closer, so visits didn’t require quite as much time and effort.