Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig!

May 14, 2008

Sorry to be so far behind on updating the blog. When Daddy is in the hospital, things just don't run smoothly around here at all.

As expected, Daddy wasn't released on Sunday either; but on Monday when we arrived at the hospital, he was convinced that he was being released that day. However, a check with the nurse quickly quashed that hope. On Sunday they put a portable 24-hour heart monitor on him and they needed to get the readings from it before he could be released. So he resigned himself to the fact that it would be Tuesday at the earliest for him to go home.

Sure enough, the nurse called fairly early Tuesday morning to tell us that Dr. John had discharged him. It wasn't much later that Daddy himself called to say he could go home. By the time we got there he was dressed and sitting in a chair reading, waiting patiently for us to arrive. Before we even got out of the hospital he was asking where we were going to eat. Honestly, he really IS like a teenage boy - always hungry! I guess if you don't eat for three and a half weeks, once you finally feel better, you have to make up for lost time. We took him to Smitty's - a local family restaurant - where he ate an omelette and TWO pancakes. See what I mean???

Halfway home we discovered that his IV port had not been removed. Some nurse certainly wasn't paying very good attention. I started calling Dr. John's office on the way home, but could never get through. Finally this morning I connected with them and we had to take Daddy to the office to have the port removed. I don't think Dr. John was very happy with the nursing staff at the hospital!

Last night I spent the night at Daddy's; tonight (Wednesday) Arend is there. I am a bit apprehensive about leaving him home alone after what happened last week. He doesn't want to be at our house, so that means we are taking turns staying with him 24/7 at his house. From past experience we know how tiring that can be for both of us, so I think we will try to wean him (and ourselves) off of that soon (read "once I get over my anxiety about leaving him by himself"). We know that the time will probably come when we will have to move him into our home - to maintain everyone's sanity.

Today Daddy has been very good. He is able to walk with the standard walker better than yesterday, so that is progress. He is also able to get up from the sofa without help (most of the time) which is great. Hopefully he will continue to improve and soon be back to where he was a week ago.

Daddy had a nice little chat with Noah on the phone tonight which brightened his day immensely. Noah loves to talk on the phone and we love talking to him, too. We have a new appreciation for how much my parents enjoyed talking to our boys when they were growing up. I wish I could figure out how to turn one of Noah's messages to us into our Call Answer message. It is SO cute!

The frustrating thing about all of this is that we still don't know what is wrong with him. Arend and I both think that this episode was a repeat of what happened on February 14th, but that isn't much help since the doctors weren't able to determine what caused that seizure either.

And so we continue somewhat in the dark, but we know that our Father in Heaven has the answer and in His own time He will reveal it to us and to the doctors. The "fixer" part of me hopes that won't take too long!

Till next time,
Willa Dale