DAD IS HOME!!!!!!!!

After 5 weeks and 1 day, Dad is finally at home!

We had to push a bit to get him discharged before the holiday weekend but we felt that it was much better to get him home then to have him just sit around until Tuesday, just because of the long weekend. (By the way, Tuesday is Mom and Dad's 36th anniversary, which is ironic since he spent 36 days in the hospital! What a extra special anniversary this will be!)

Of course, the hospital and physicians were recommending that he go into a rehab facility for awhile, which would have been good for him, but he didn't want to. I can't say as though I blame him, and he will mentally do much better being at home.

Getting him out of the hospital was a bit of a challenge due to some insurance complications. They sent him home with a bit of oxygen and had to change suppliers at the last minute. He didn't actually leave the hospital until almost 6pm, after waiting all day. This of course, wasn't ideal, but at least he was able to leave. He was nervous that something was going to happen at the last minute to make them keep him, which was a fear of mine too, being a holiday weekend.

Dad did pretty well for the hour ride home and it took about 15 minutes to get him into the house. We have a few steps in the front and a few steps in the garage and although the garage way is a bit longer for him, I felt it was the best way, since there is a handrail. He took two little breaks from the car the to steps and then was able to power his way into the house.

Shortly after he arrived home, the home health nurse came by for a quick assessment and the oxygen supplier brought all of his home oxygen equipment and tanks. After all of that, we gave him his medications and IV antibiotics and settled him in bed and let him sleep for a few hours. We had to wake him up twice during the night for his IV antibiotics, but he said he was still able to sleep better than in the hospital.

He has been very weak and very depressed. The weakness will take some work and time, and physical therapy will be coming by the house in the next few days to start a plan. As far as the depression, we can already see a slight improvement. Being somewhere familiar is a huge comfort, I am sure, and we are just glad to have him home.

I expect that the next few days will be pretty lazy days. He has a lot of sleep to catch up on and I think he deserves a few lazy days. After that, I am signing him up for Jazzercise! Or maybe I will bring him out into the living room and put Richard Simmons or one of those other very annoying and very hyper exercise TV shows on for him.

We have a lot of appointments to set up and still a lot of plans to make for him, but saving at least 2 hours a day driving to and from the hospital and having him all set up in his little mock nursing home room in what used to be Delainey's playroom is nice. Delainey even enjoyed just sitting with her Papa on his bed for about an hour this morning.

And, another big change in the house....we no longer have Delainey on the baby monitor. With her snoring and apnea episodes, we never really felt comfortable not having her on a monitor. Now that she is 3 months out from surgery, and we can no longer hear a peep from her silent and restful breathing, we have put the monitor to better uses. It's in Papa's room and mom and I each have a handset to hear him with! It worked great last night so he could call if he needed anything! It was either that, or I was going to give him Delainey's bike horn, which probably would have lead to a lot of middle of the night barking from Sheba!

Oh, and speaking of Sheba....she is so adorable. She just sits at the door of Papa's room and gives him a concerned little look. Every time we go in there for anything, she is right by our side just making sure everything is all right. She barked for about the first hour he was home, but mostly because of all the strangers in the house while we had her locked outside. After that, she settled right down and went into concerned mode. What a great little dog she is!

Oh, and I guess I will mention my crappy knee, as well. Don't ask me what I did, but I hurt it somehow on Monday night. I think it was pushing up to climb into the truck, but I am not completely sure. I don't remember it hurting then, but it sure hurt when I got out of the truck. I thought that it would go away and be better by Tuesday, but I was wrong. I headed to the ER, with the help of a great friend to be my Delainey wrangler! They did xrays and said there was fluid in my knee and wanted me to see an ortho specialist. On Wednesday morning, I saw the ortho doc and his initial impression was that he thought it was a really bad lupus flare. I didn't completely buy that, but he wanted to get an MRI just in case, so I went with it. I have never had a lupus flare suddenly affect only one joint, though I am sure it is possible, it just isn't something I have experienced in all these years. I had the MRI that afternoon and got the results back on Friday. Being the impatient person that I am, I requested a copy myself before the doc had a chance to call me. Then when they finally called me, I slept through the message. The message said everything was "fine" but that the doctor wanted a second opinion on the films, so they were going to have an additional radiologist read them and get back to me on Tuesday. "Fine" but wants a second opinion? Interesting! According to the copy I got, I have a ganglion cyst on my ACL (ligament that stabilizes the knee) and my medial meniscus (cartilage that sits on the inside of the knee joint) is torn. Doesn't sound fine to me, but what do I know. I will just wait to see what they say on Tuesday. Ironically, the MRI also showed metal in both the front and back of my knee, which the MRI said was consistent with previous surgery, however I shouldn't have any metal, as far as I know. My last surgery was pretty minor and basically involved scraping off a bunch of calcium deposits. Why metal would be left behind for that, I am not so sure. Again, we will have to wait and see what information Tuesday brings.

For now, we are all home, safe and sound and hoping for some good progress in the next few days. Continued thanks to all of the amazing people in our lives! We would not have made it through all of this chaos without all of you, and hopefully soon we can get the proper thanks out where they are deserved! Love you all!!