26 April 2007: The Great Escape!
I got the call to pick Mike up at around 1:30pm... Believe it or not, he was ready for discharge instructions when I got there..the only glitch was that we were stopped on our way out of the room with a message that Hanger Prosthetics had a packet of info he needed to have before he left...so after about a 20 minute delay, we were off. Mike could hardly believe he was out of the hospital after so many confined days...an emotional moment to say the least. He definitely was not used to moving faster than 5 feet per minute, so the freeway almost seemed like a high speed roller coaster.
The rest of the day pushed his tolerance of surrounding activity to the limit...the bed had just arived, so the set-up man was still here; it was supper time so GiGis veggie soup was simmering; 5 of my granddaughters were here for the day; Becky was helping GiGi (Mike's Mom) with dinner, the bed and other miscellaneous things; and Phyllis arrived to help with the first "home" dressing change. We had to drop and run so we could get Mike's prescriptions filled (especially the pain meds for the dressing change).
Dinner went well except that Rayna (Kim's daughter) upchucked (we really don't know why), but it was a real initiation to Mike's return to the compound.
The shower and dressing change went better than expected, but Phyllis and I were glad we didn't try it solo this first time out. We found ourselves running for things we had at our fingertips in the hospital. The dressing wasn't the best, so we will definitely come up with solutions to some of the wrapping scenarios....time will fix it. The funniest part of the evening was us not noticing that one of the little ones was watching Mike navigate from the bathroom to his bedroom, well--his gown was sort of flapping open in the back (I was focused on much more than that) and when we heard Makenna announce to her sister "Uncle Mike is naked"---we realized that we should have closed the door ---all the way!!
Later in the evening Judd appeared to install safety rails and an adjustable shower head in the shower...great job...thanks, Judd!
A bigger surprise was Mike's brother, Jim arriving. He spent the night with plans to stick around the next day. Judd, Jim and Mike stayed up later than I did---great conversation and fun!!
Sorry this entry was so late, but what a busy day!!
The rest of the day pushed his tolerance of surrounding activity to the limit...the bed had just arived, so the set-up man was still here; it was supper time so GiGis veggie soup was simmering; 5 of my granddaughters were here for the day; Becky was helping GiGi (Mike's Mom) with dinner, the bed and other miscellaneous things; and Phyllis arrived to help with the first "home" dressing change. We had to drop and run so we could get Mike's prescriptions filled (especially the pain meds for the dressing change).
Dinner went well except that Rayna (Kim's daughter) upchucked (we really don't know why), but it was a real initiation to Mike's return to the compound.
The shower and dressing change went better than expected, but Phyllis and I were glad we didn't try it solo this first time out. We found ourselves running for things we had at our fingertips in the hospital. The dressing wasn't the best, so we will definitely come up with solutions to some of the wrapping scenarios....time will fix it. The funniest part of the evening was us not noticing that one of the little ones was watching Mike navigate from the bathroom to his bedroom, well--his gown was sort of flapping open in the back (I was focused on much more than that) and when we heard Makenna announce to her sister "Uncle Mike is naked"---we realized that we should have closed the door ---all the way!!
Later in the evening Judd appeared to install safety rails and an adjustable shower head in the shower...great job...thanks, Judd!
A bigger surprise was Mike's brother, Jim arriving. He spent the night with plans to stick around the next day. Judd, Jim and Mike stayed up later than I did---great conversation and fun!!
Sorry this entry was so late, but what a busy day!!
