After 14 hours in the hospital yesterday, I had high hopes for a much better day today. I was not disappointed. I was utterly exhausted, so after sleeping almost ten hours, I finally made it to the hospital around 11:00. A little selfish I know, but to be honest, I could have easily slept another five hours. When I got there Mom was sitting up in her bed, chatting it up with the Fitts' who had come to visit. She looked great. Apparently, shortly after we left last night, the anesthesia and subsequent nausea finally wore off, and she went on an all night eating spree of saltine crackers and cookies. She said she even made dad get up at 6am to go get her a biscuit and some coffee. This was great news to those of us who watched her complain about being hungry all day yesterday, yet be unable to eat.
Before I got there, the nurse had told them that she would be discharged by lunch, so we were pretty much sitting around waiting for everything to get wrapped up. Well we waited...and waited...and then waited some more. I will admit that, although we were very fond of her evening and overnight nurses, the day nurse and tech today left a great deal to be desired. After a long time sitting around, the nurse finally came in with the discharge papers...followed by a cafeteria worker with the 4th tray of inedible jell-o, apple juice, beef broth, and italian ice. Needless to say, we politely told them where they could put that tray...right back in the cafeteria!
After the nurse went over all the discharge instructions, then we got to wait around for a wheelchair to take her to the lobby. We lost track of time at that point. But when that finally arrived, we realized that the wonderful nurse hadn't changed her dressings, and neither one of us knew how to do it properly. So we tracked her down only to have her inform us that the doctor hadn't informed her to do so. We insisted that maybe it would be a good idea for someone who would be going home with her to know how to change her dressings. So we got to wait around again for her to find the time to do that. (Side note for those with strong stomachs: The nurse was very impressed with the incision site once we got the dressings off. She said that usually the bandages have quite a bit of blood on them, but her bandage and incision were both completely clean!) After that we got to wait around some more for someone to push the wheelchair. After the 3rd time reminding the nurses' station that we were still waiting on a wheelchair pusher, I wasn't quite as polite as I started out. But apparently I got my point across because finally, around 2:10 or so, we got to leave!
Of course by that point, she was starving, because she was supposed to have left before lunch, and when lunchtime had rolled around, they had never changed her instructions so we received the ridiculous tray as described above. So McDonalds it was. Let's just say she had her appetite back.
She seemed great through the rest of the afternoon and evening. She wasn't in any pain. In fact she felt so good that I was constantly having to remind her to be careful not to use her left arm so much. Dad and I were threatening to tape it down before she caused some damage. Overall it was a great day. It was so comforting to see her alert and back to her usual self.
Thanks again for all of your prayers and support. It is such a great comfort to see her surrounded by not just our family but a community of family and friends who truly love and support us through all of this. God is continually pouring out his blessings of favor, peace and joy upon our family. We could not have asked for more.
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