Home At Last

Nine days after her ordeal began, Jan. 25 brought two major moments. The first was that Bruno was released from the hospital. During the ride home, she looked out the window at the familiar route and remembers a “comforting sense of normalcy” settling over her. 

“It was my first time out of a hospital gown in weeks, I felt glorious,” Bruno said.

The same day Bruno and her family received the much-awaited pathology results. Her tumor was benign.

“My whole family just started sobbing and fell to our knees and I gave the glory to God that this was not cancer,” she said. “It was this overwhelming, indescribable feeling to get such a glorious happy moment and we had to soak it all in.”

Despite the momentary relief, the recovery journey ahead was an uphill climb. 

Bruno was in a lot of pain for the first couple of weeks, caused both by the procedure and the side effects of heavy medication. Movement was difficult but necessary to regain strength and stability as well as prevent blood clots. 

While in physical therapy Bruno prayed through the pain and used those around her to gather strength. Her physical therapist told her recovery was a bigger mental struggle than anything else. “I had finally become confident with my body and where I was in my life, and then I was thrown back to square one,” Bruno said. 

Things as simple as getting out of bed now required an immense amount of effort. 

“It was hard to rely on people for everything because I am a very independent person, but it has taught me lessons like patience and accepting help from others.” 

Bruno had to sit in a chair for her first home shower, an extreme contrast to how she left her house a month before. “I was crying and [senior] Anna [Greenstone] and my Mom showered me,” she said.

The recovery process tested her renewed faith. At times Bruno felt “forsaken” by God when dealing with the pain and frustrations of re-learning actions that used to be easy. While “grateful to be alive,” the occasional feeling that God had abandoned her created a shame spiral.  

The doubts, however, ended up increasing the strength of her faith.

“When Jesus was being crucified he cried, Mary cried. They felt forsaken,” Bruno said, “ But they never lost their faith.”

“God wants me to have those feelings. I am human.” 

Since being home, Ginny has had really high highs and really low lows. Most of this has been caused by her “laundry list” of medications. These medications have also caused joint pain, muscle soreness, heat flashes, numbness, heart flutters, spotty vision, and insomnia. 

“A lot of things were overstimulating and frustrating,” Ginny said, I felt like I was feeling a thousand emotions at once; I still do”

Bruno found comfort in crying during these times of immense emotional surges. “Crying is such a beautiful thing because not only do you get an emotional release, but your body releases chemicals to help you regulate your emotions,” she said.

Along with physical and occupational therapy, Bruno has needed to adapt to many new physical and dietary restrictions.

“I am willing to do whatever I need to do for my body,” Bruno said, “but that is not to say I don’t have moments of resentment for all my restrictions.”