What do we want? Discharge? When do we get it? Saturday morning! Yep, as long as Colby continues to improve and/or not get any worse, we're out of here Saturday morning. I'm not sure if we'll have an ambulance ride or not. It's doubtful. So when my dad comes up tomorrow, he will bring the van and Colby's power chair. Going to make sure we have an extra oxygen tank on hand also. We need to keep our fingers crossed that there are no traffic issues. Colby is going to struggle as it is sitting up the 100 miles from here to home. I know he's ready to go home. I don't think we're rushing it at all. He's getting better rest and tolerating his respiratory treatments so much better than he was a few days ago. But sitting up will be an issue. It always is when Colby is sick and/or recovering from an illness. Ambulance or not, we're getting this sweet boy home before he catches some other nastiness in the TCC.
Now, if you don't like or have an appreciation for cussing, then please skip over this paragraph. I'm so fucking mad at the moment I'm shaking. As soon as rounds were over this morning and it was decided Sat morning was the target date for discharge, I called our nursing agency. They informed me they had NO nursing supervisor to come out on Saturday and we couldn't have nursing until Sunday. Excuse me?! WTH did you just say?! Here's what happens. When Colby gets admitted to the hospital, he gets "discharged" from the nursing agency. Once we get home, we can't have a nurse come out and work until the nursing agency does a "resumption of care". Well, there is no one available Saturday to do that. Both the nurse supervisors will be out of town. Isn't that just fabulous? Just freaking wonderful, perfectly F-ed up fabulous? Thank God I can take care of Colby by myself. It's not that we HAVE to have a nurse on Saturday. It's the point that we NEED one. In this instance, I NEED the help, and that's not something you hear me say often! I'm tired, need to get us unpacked, check the mail, empty the fridge, etc. All that crap that needs to be done when you've been gone for a week, on top of take care of Colby, who is still getting cough treatments every 6 hours around the clock to knock out the rest of his illness. Stupid asshole nursing agency. I made it perfectly clear how I felt with them when I was on the phone with them this morning. You know I did. It's just ridiculous. Okay, needed to vent. It is what it is, and I'm going to deal with it. Sunday morning at 9AM there will be a nursing supervisor at the apartment to do a resumption of care. I'm trying to line up nursing for Sunday now.
There's been some debate on whether or not we should or shouldn't be putting water in Colby's trach cuff. At home, we have never put anything in his cuff. We were never told to do so. But when he had his spine surgery and also with this hospital stay, they put water in his cuff. So I said okay, we need to get this straightened out so I know what in the crap to do with this cuff when we get home. They ran a NICO test on Colby's trach last night. They figure out, when Colby is sleeping, how much water needs to go in the cuff to maximize Colby's volumes, minimize his leak, etc. Basically figure out if water, and then how much water, in his trach cuff helps him breathe better. Turns out Colby needs anywhere from 2.2-2.5 mL in his trach overnight. Huh, who knew?! They are going to read over all the data from last night's NICO and tell me what to do from this point forward. Glad to be getting this done. Anything that will help Colby breathe easier/better is okie-dokie-artichokie with me.
That's what I know. Can't wait to get home! One week in the stinky hospital is enough. Can't wait to have my sweet boy get back to his normal funny, eye-rolling, jabbering self. Can't watch to watch football on my own dang couch and sleep in my own bed. Can't wait to see my friends, hopefully go out to dinner with some of them one day next week. Come on, Saturday morning, get us home!
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