Hospital/Home - Day 5/Day 1 - Goin' Home

I woke up this morning knowing exactly what day it was. It's Discharge Day! That's right I'm going home today. There are still a couple of things left to do, but the plan is to be out the door by mid morning.

I woke up in the similar fashion, on my back, slightly elevated and staring at the clock. My parents arrived pretty early (7:30am) so that they could get a good parking spot. Parking at the OHI is brutal beyond 8:45am and the current snow conditions make it that much worse.

Breakfast arrived as usual at 8:15 and it was my last chance to try and get a rise out of the Food Lady. "Good Morning!." It's almost like I was talking to some one else. Blank stair, drop the food off and move on to the next room. It's weird because it doesn't feel impolite. Just absent.

After breakfast, M. arrived smiling the chiclet smile because she knows what day it is too. Going home is progress. Going home means there's no complications.

Due to all the weather in the past couple of days the nurse teams in our ward have been short handed. It was hardly noticeable for me because I didn't demand to much attention, but I could hear snippets of conversations from the hallway. With that in mind, it took a while for the nurse to come in and do my vitals check. I also told her that I needed the heart monitor wire removed and the sutures checked. She left the room and returned in about 20 minutes with some gear.

First was the heart monitor wire. It was the last dangling remnant of my surgery. It's a wire that is connected straight to the heart that can link to a pacemaker or another device to monitor my heart activity. Now that I was going home it was no longer needed. So, I'm lying down, she tells me its going to feel weird, grabs hold of the dangling part and gives a soft yank. I can't say I felt the wire detach, but I sure as hell felt the wire as it meandered it way to the surface. Done. It was probably about an 6 inch length that had been in my body. The nurse showed it to me, guessing correctly that I wanted to see what it looked like. It was just a wire. Nothing special. She put a band-aid over the wire hole, checked my chest and leg sutures and then went off to find the doctor for my prescriptions.

The list of prescriptions was substantial but all had a purpose. I met with the resident for one last discussion and he gave the nod that I could go home. I pealed off my well appreciated pyjamas and put on some regular clothes. M. and my folks collected my various fruit baskets, flowers and other stuff. I walked over to the nurses station to say "thankyou very much and goodbye" and then we got out of Dodge.

I was still pretty stiff, so getting in and out of the truck was tricky. Once home I sat down on my couch, took a deep breath (as deep as I could manage) and just sat there. The rest of the day consisted of a marathon session of Battlestar Gallactica episodes, an early dinner and then early to bed. My own bed with M. by my side. Things were starting to feel right again.