Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everybody!

Wow.

It has been a DAY!

*** Oops, Kyle arrived and we got 

busy doing family stuff...

It's Friday, Boxing Day, now.

We started with another difficult night.

The tube they put in his chest

was really uncomfortable.

We had the nurse come in and put

a lidocaine patch on the site as

close as we could and that really helped.

But when he wakes in the night,

he's pretty disoriented.

It took about an hour and a half to

make him comfortable in his body,

but more importantly, in his brain.

(He didn't remember anything about the

accident and thought he was 20 years old.)

About 2:30 he finally nodded off to sleep

and managed to sleep until 4:00 when he

had another chest x-ray and then fell

back to sleep until about 5:00.

And then the day began in earnest.

He woke up and was having a lot of

discomfort on his low belly , left side,

and thought maybe he had appendicitis.

I told him that was where they had been

injecting him twice a day with blood thinner

to avoid blood clots, but he wasn't convinced.

He also needed a refill on his  big water cup,

so as I headed out the door, he asked me

to look out in the hall and see if there

was a doctor he could ask about his belly.

I looked over my shoulder and said

"Rod, it is Christmas morning.

There isn't going to be a random doctor

walking around in the hall."

Opened the door.

And there was our doctor.

Hahahahahahahahaha.

(He got a good laugh too...)

Dr. Smith (the 1st year who has been 

taking care of us) came to check on us.

He checked the belly and said there was

a LARGE bruise there from all the injections

and to request they do it on the other side

from now on.

And then he said, we got your results from

your x-ray, and the tube doesn't seem to be

making any difference. There is a "slight"

improvement, but not much.

So.

We are coming back with Dr. Thacker 

(the Trauma doc who saw us in ICU)

and he will decide what comes next, but

we think we will pull the tube.

About 20 minutes later, Dr. Thacker,

Dr. Smith, and another resident (new) stopped

in, and he said, when rounds are done,

Dr. Smith will come back and pull the tube out.

Then we will wait and do another chest x-ray

about noon. If, as I suspect, there is no change

or even possibly improvement, we will 

just go ahead and send you home.

Just like that.

They left, and about 10 minutes later,

Dr. Smith was back to remove the 2nd tube.

It was a bit uncomfortable, but Rod is a trooper.

************************

ALERT!!!!!

Look away if you don't want to see this.

(Not body, blood, guts, etc...

just the tube itself...)

But this is not only an update for family,

but also the record for us, and especially

for Rod since he doesn't remember an awful

lot of what went on.

So...

You have been warned.

THIS was in his lung cavity!

They call it a pig tail, because it has a little

curl on the end, like a pig's tail.

Egads!

We thought it was just a little clear,

pliable tube about the diameter of the

ink part of a click pen. You know when

it falls apart and you have to thread the

little spring back on and then it never

really works right ever again?

Anyhow.

That was what was sticking out and going

to the collection box, so... it stands to reason

that was what was in there, right?

Nope.

Ugh!

******************************************

Ok, we're back.

After they took that out, 

Dr. Smith reminded us we would have

an x-ray at noon, and then, most likely

we would be heading home TODAY.

So...

After he left, our funny little Hindi doctor

(he's the other hospitalist, covering for Dr. Kern,

he covers all the Christian holidays and she

covers all his Hindi holidays - a great solution

for both of them!)

He was SO personable!

He was the one that told us last week we would

probably get to go home on Friday.

And then on Friday, came in and apologized

about a thousand times for getting our hopes up.

He was taking a few days off before the

holiday, so he said his goodbyes, because

surely we would be gone before he came back.

So when he walked in the room, he was 

all like, WHAT THE HECK!

He said he's going to stop predicting

when we get to go home, and he's not

going to buy any lottery tickets either

because apparently he's not good at this stuff.

We chatted about his 2 little kids for a 

bit and then he went on his way.

The nurse came in and said that since all

the tubes were out of his body,

Rod was cleared to TAKE A SHOWER!!!!!

He was SO EXCITED!

We hopped in the shower and he got to

get his hair washed and cleaned all his

body with actual soap and running water.

What a difference that made!

Even stood in front of the sink and brushed

his hair and his teeth!

After all that excitement, he needed a NAP.

So he climbed into bed and was 

out like a light.

And while he was, I decided to take a load

of stuff down to the car.

HOW do you accumulate so much STUFF!

Anyhow, I loaded up a cloth bag full of

stuff we didn't need, as well as a Walmart

bag full of extra PowerAde bottles.

On the way down, I met a lovely lady

(Diane) in the elevator, she was heading out

to her car and offered to carry one of my bags.

We had a nice visit - her family member is

in the cancer unit and not doing well.

She has been in the hospital since

the week before Thanksgiving!

WOW!

I headed to my car and dumped out the 

cloth bag so I could take another load down,

and when I went back in, there was Diane again,

this time she was loaded down with a bunch

of stuff she was bringing IN.

So I got to help her carry her bags!

When we got to the floor, the x-ray tech was

in the hall outside our room, I peaked inside,

and Rod's bed was empty!

The tech said he was in the bathroom.

I said goodbye to Diane and headed into the room.

Tapped on the bathroom door to make 

sure everything was ok, expecting to see

Rod, with his brace on, and a nurse, assisting

while he was in there.

NOPE.

I opened the door, and there was Rod,

no brace, no nurse, no walker.

Just heading back to bed.

(He was watching a Nascar race when he

went to sleep, so he could hear it, and it 

was incorporated into his dream, so when he

woke, he thought he was at a Nascar race and

just got up and found a bathroom.)

We didn't mention this to his nurse.

They did the x-ray, and the nurse came in to

do his vitals and give him his noon meds,

while she was there, I dashed down with a 2nd

load of stuff for the car.

When I got back, Rod was sitting in his chair,

and said the nurse just came in and said we 

were discharged and to let her know when I was

ready to go and she would pop him in a wheelchair

and we could leave!

Gathered the final load of stuff, like our flowers

and phone chargers, that sort of thing.

She brought in a wheelchair, gave him some

oxy (for the road) and we headed downstairs.

When I pulled up to the loading circle,

they were there waiting.

I opened the passenger door and he just

climbed in all by himself!

We folded up a sweatshirt and tucked it

between his back and the back of the brace,

(there's a BIG gap)

And then I put him in the neck thingie

I bought when I was sleeping in the chair...

So he would be able to sleep and his neck/head

would be supported.

There was still an uncomfortable gap between

his head and the headrest.

And I remembered the bag of 12 pairs of socks

I bought the day before at Walmart.

He needed ONE pair of socks, but the cheapest

way to get it, was to buy a pack of 12.

And that pack fit in the gap like it was made for it!

And, we were OFF!

He was only awake for about the first 10 minutes

and then he nodded off.

I spent most of the drive chatting on the phone

with family and friends, updating everybody on

the latest.

We made it home just about 4:30.

It was an uneventful drive.

The weather was lovely. There was some

fog / smog for a bit, but it wasn't a problem.

He woke up about 20 minutes from home

and was kind of drifting in and out 

for the rest of the ride.

Once we got home and got him out of the car

(and into the bathroom) and then into the

lazyboy, he was ready to rest again.

I sat and started this blog, but then Kyle arrived,

and we spent some time opening all the MANY

boxes he had piled up in front of the TV.

Some were gifts,

some were the things Rod ordered to restock

the church library,

but it was fun opening them all!

Thank you to all for the sweet gifts we

received from everybody!

(I will be sending gifts next week..... sorry!)

It was a fun evening and SO GOOD to get

to see Kyle!

He helped me pull the sheets off the bed and

we put a new waffle pad on the bed, as well

as a big wedge pillow I bought... (it goes from

his waist to his head) so he could be a little

bit elevated while sleeping.

Kyle left about 9:30 and we headed off to bed.

He was nice and comfy with the new additions,

and I added a TV tray to the side of the bed

so he could reach his water and urinal

(and remind him NOT to get up!)

Phew!

Tomorrow I'll catch you up on what we did

today, Boxing Day, but this thing is LONG enough.

Merry Christmas!