Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Frankie Is HOME!!!

Oh, my word....I NEVER thought I'd live to see Frankie come back home!!  I thought he was going to take up permanent residence at John C. Lincoln Hospital, room 415!!  But yesterday was the BEST day of both of our lives when I could wheel the car around to the loading zone and pick up my husband (he was patiently waiting for me in a wheelchair by the door) and take him home.  Well, we stopped by the pharmacy, first.  But I'll get into that later. Let me back up a little since things happened so fast, I didn't get a chance to blog about it before.  He went from pureed food to regular to out the door within a space of a day!!  And I'd got photographic evidence of Frankie with REAL food, too.  Wanna see? Here we go....the first picture is Frankie with his pureed lunch and the second is of Frankie with his regular dinner of spaghetti and meatballs.

 Doesn't he look great without the NG tube hanging out of his nose?  He said he feels like a real person again!  Albeit tired, but real nonetheless.  This ordeal has made ALL of us tired.  But no more having to go to the hospital everyday, circling the parking lot like a shark, waiting for people to leave and me sucking up the spot. Even the handicapped (which is the whole front lot!) would be busy. But I got it down to a science that if I go between 8am to 10am and 12pm-on I had a really good chance of getting a space right up front.  Between 10am and 12pm, FORGET IT!  And I did love those spots up front, especially since I had to wrangle with my walker everyday, getting it out of the trunk and ready to roll.  See, that always was my hubby's job, but I didn't have him there to help. :(  I tried once going in without the walker and I almost fell three times and my legs felt really weak. So I used the walker from then on.  I'll say it again: I HATE FIBRO!!  It sure does put a crimp in things, doesn't it?

Anyway, Frankie sure did enjoy his meal. Now I know he's been in the hospital too long....he loves hospital food!!!  Actually, John C. Lincoln has great food. Trust me, my mother-in-law and I were regulars at the Kettle Hut Cafe on the first floor. I've got their menu memorized at this point!  Frankie tolerated all the food with no problems. So having that hematoma drain in really turned things around. The hematoma itself is what was blocking the intestine, so nothing could go past it.  Leave it to my husband to manufacture this kind of stuff!!   Once the docs heard he was tolerating food OK, that's when things went really fast and they started the process of getting him home. He will need home health care due to still having the abdominal drain (he will have that removed when he sees the surgeon in the office next week) and it requires daily irrigating and emptying. Which I can do myself, but the insurance is paying for home health, so who am I to complain and step on anyone's "turf"?  I am having to empty it more than once a day, though, as it still is draining pretty good.  Probably with all the movement and walking now is what is getting it to drain more than in the hospital.

Frankie didn't get discharged until about 4pm yesterday. I got to the hospital at 8am that morning as I didn't want to miss the doctors and anything else that might happen.  Social services got everything set up the home health, we should be seeing the nurse this morning.  Then they converted the drain over to a Jackson-Pratt drain which is much easier to take care of than the one he had in the hospital!  It looks like a little hand grenade and you squeeze the bulb and close the tab on top and it creates a constant suction. Then when the bulb is full of fluid, you empty it, record it and squeeze it in again to create the constant suction.  Then, we had the teaching part of the drain, he can go home on regular food, and no restrictions of any kind.  We were on our way, then, out the door and to the pharmacy.  That is where we ran into a problem.  The doctor wrote a prescription for his pain medication but forgot to put Frankie's name on it and due to their rules and regulations (I'll tell ya where they can stick those!!!) they couldn't accept it without his name. So we had to go all the way BACK to the hospital and they put one of his name stickers on the prescription and we were on our way BACK to the pharmacy.  This time they filled it and we were on our way home!

It felt really good to have him in bed with me, right by my side. I'd taken that for granted until he was gone for a month and I had the bed alone.  What a downer that was!  So I'll never take that for granted again!!  My fibro is horrible still. It doesn't help that the humidity is around 50%, which is WAY higher than we are used to.  They keep saying rain is in the forcast, so hopefully it will rain away the humidity.  I doubt it...this is Arizona we're talking about...the land of sun 360 days of the year!

I'm taking it really easy, myself. I woke up this morning with a stitch in my side and my legs felt like I'd had surgery on them during the night without any anesetic!  Or like someone was banging on them all night.  I just took my morning pills so hopefully those will kick in soon.  Speaking of pills, I just have to show you one of the cutest pics I got of Jack "helping" me put my medications in my pill container for the week.  He just has to be a part of everything!!

"GOT DRUGS?" Jackie does!!  He's such a good helper, don't you agree?  Whenever I put anything out, he has to lay on it.  He's such a cutie pie, I couldn't resist passing up this photo opportunity!!

Alright, that's it on my end of the world. Now we go to lots of follow-up appointments for Frankie. So the calendar will be filling up fast and we'll be shooting from one end of town to the next.  But I love traveling and we have the BEST car (Toyota Camry), so it's no problem. Just wish it were a tiny bit cooler....but you can't always have everything!!
Hope this post finds you all happy and well.
God bless you all and thank you for all your prayers and support. Frankie is greatly appreciative, too.  We love ya all!!

Until next post,
Missy

4 comments:

  1. Woo Hoo! Congratulations, that is WONDERFUL! Now you two can enjoy some privacy in your own surroundings with your very own feline pharmacist!
    Have a fabulous day!
    Patti

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you! I got a big chuckle out the "feline pharmacist"!!! He is one, isn't he? :0) LOL...thanks for making me laugh. And for reading my blog. I sometimes think it must be so boring to some people, but I have a pretty good following, so I must not be doing TOO badly.....:0)

    ReplyDelete
  3. So happy for you. I don't know how you do it, or did it. I'm baffled just thinking about trying to manage a hospital parking lot much less actually getting to a room everyday and taking care of someone. They say it's harder on the caregiver. I've been a caregiver and I believe that it is, but especially one with fibro. God bless you sister. You'll have jewels in your crown for sure. One part in your post reminded me so much of me. Every week when I'm doing my pills in my huge pill organizer for the week I just think "i am too young for this".

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know the feeling! We are too young for this!! I'm only 40 and take 23 different types of pills a day! That is JUST ridiculous! I can remember a time way back when I only took an occasional aspirin for a headache and a vitamin pill. Those days are long gone. Thank you for your kind words. I can't believe I did it, either. Of course I would always show up in my husband's room looking like I just came from the shower and forgot to towel off! There has got to be something for my sweating! Maybe if we move to Alaska.....lol!

    ReplyDelete

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