When you're looking forward to a change, do you count down? For example, Friday night I was thinking, this is the last time I'll sleep on this piece-of-shit excuse of a bed. Saturday morning I thought, this is the last time I'll drink coffee from this cafeteria. Tomorrow I'll be brewing my own. I found myself looking ahead to the last of the hospital food, morning and afternoon rounds, PICC line antibiotics and riding the elevators with strangers and their ugly feet. The last of having absolutely no privacy or peace and quiet. And I hope it's the last of all that stuff for a very, very, very long time. Yep, there's no place like home for sure.
Colby's discharge from Cincy Children's couldn't have gone any smoother than it did. His discharge nurse did an excellent job getting everything coordinated. I had asked her to schedule the ambulance to pick us up at 3:00 Saturday. Colby got his last antibiotic at 1:30, which took half an hour to run through, then Colby's nurse removed his PICC line. He got a cough treatment at 2:00. We had all our personal stuff already packed in Mom's car. I reviewed and signed off on Colby's discharge instructions/papers. The ambulance arrived at exactly 3:00 (good thing for them, huh?) and away we went. Mom got in her car and drove home, Colby and I got in the ambulance. I was worried about traffic since there was a race at Sparta, but there were no issues. So here we are finally at home in sweet old Louisville.
Okay, there was 1 little snafoo, and when my parents read this they will crap. We had no pulse/ox for Colby on the way home. Whoopsie, that's 1 item that is with Colby 24/7. I just assumed there was a monitor in the ambulance. Wrong! I quickly learned there are 2 types of ambulances and we were NOT in the type that carried monitors/pulse ox machines. Our options were, the ambulance drivers go and get a pulse/ox for the trip, or just go for it. I chose the latter. Colby was using his new Trilogy, plus I had all his equipment for the ride home (except pulse/ox), even had the backup battery "just in case." I sat and watched Colby the whole time. No problems, no worries, he did fine.
Now we're on our firsts. The first we've slept in our own beds in 40 days. The first Colby and I have been alone with each other in over 5 weeks. The first for me taking care of Colby completely in days. I made and drank my coffee this morning with no worry of missing rounds or needing to get back to Colby. Rosa came over and watched Colby so I could go to Mass. I was away from Colby for 2 hours, the 1st time that has happened since August. Looking forward to many other firsts as the week goes on.
Colby and I both seem misconbobulated. He has had a high heart rate on and off throughout the day. I had them give him his flu shot right before discharge, so I'm assuming the high HR is from that. Goes down when I give him Motrin. This apartment is a complete wreck. I don't mean it's a little messy, I mean everywhere you look there is work to do. Clean clothes to put away, dirty clothes to sash, boxes of snacks to organize lol, bags of supplies to go through and unpack/organize, a new piece of equipment to learn to use, etc. There were 27 messages on my home phone, 9 of which need to be returned as soon as possible. So you know what I'll be doing in the morning. I tried to keep up with my mail some while away, but still loads of it to go through. The fridge is empty except for condiments and booze. I have a lot of scheduling juggling to do, get Colby's home hospital schooling started, reschedule my surgery, get back to work. But none of that matters at this exact moment. Nothing else matters except WE'RE HOME, we're together and Colby is getting better. All the rest of this crap will fall into place as the weeks progress. Okay, gotta get that sweet boy in bed. G'nite all.
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