Friday Morning

Tammy is doing much better! Eating again, Color back in her face, Getting plenty of rest, Keeping medicine down. She has been out of bed several times now because Mr. Foley (She is a big Three's Company fan, in case you didn't know) is gone and she refuses to use a bedpan. We are now living A'la Commode. We brought our own commode/shower chair which we purchased from a friend after the last surgery and it works very well. It has wheels, back support and arm rests.

It amazes me how amazed hospital staff is about the things we have come up with to work for us. When seeing Tammy's shower chair they said "I love these brakes" "Oh, look it even has a velcro seatbelt." and "this is better than most of the equipment we have" - They were equally amazed with the custom built platform which a friend made for Tammy after last surgery. The social worker was even amazed that I thought to use the empty plastic notice holders on the doors to put Pictures of and artwork by Benny and Destiny. " I never thought of that - I'm going to recommend it to all our families!" I don't know if it's just the mandane work environment that extinguishes any flame of creativity around here or what - I just don't get it. In March, when Physical Therapy tried to transfer Tammy for the first time they brought 5 people and a transfer board - I thought they knew what they were doing but it was such a joke, causing pain to Tammy, going extremely slow, and just not working. I remember I said "I just don't see how this is going to work when Tammy has to hurry and get to the commode". This time, some of the same Physisical Therapy Assistants were back, they let me show them what we had figured out works best and things went much better.

In March, we really felt pushed out of the hospital before we felt comfortable going home. This time things are different. Perhaps having a surgery during the week makes a difference. Last time the surgery was on a Friday and after that Friday we did not see our Surgeon until the 6 week post-op visit but this time he has stopped by himself twice, besides the visits from his surgical team. Our Surgeon also contacted the Rehab unit to make sure they met with us and understood what we were comfortable with this time (Tammy gave feedback about the discharge last time :-) I told the rehab unit how we were pushed out last time and really had to just figure things out after we got home, how Tammy felt horrible that first week at home and has done everything possible to make this time easier. Tammy has spent weeks arranging her in-home care following surgery, we have moved into an accessible home, and we have a new accessible van. We have our platform and our shower/commode chair. So, I have been telling all the hospital staff that we planned on a 3-4 day stay just like last time (and we were planning on being forced out like last time - transferring to the rehab wing was not offered to us last time) and unless Tammy is still needing Oxygen and IV, there is no reason for us to stay.

Things are so different this time around - in a good way. We are anticpating that we will be discharged this afternoon. Even though we now have a wheelchair accessible van, Tammy may get medical transport because she doesn't know if she wants to try sitting in her chair all the way home (especially since our route home is on 270 - one of the most awfully bumpy portions of Hwy in the Denver Metro area - I hope part of the stimulus package funds for rebuilding roads will do something for that stretch- it should because President Obama loves Colorado :-)

When they decide to discharge us - it will happen fast and I won't have time to write another post but I will try to write a comment on this post - so please check back later in the day to find out what happened.

At UCH, whenever a baby is born, they play "rock a bye baby" over the entire PA system - we heard the lullaby twice this morning fairly close together so I'm thinking someone might have had twins. As I write this, the lullably just started again - triplets? Maybe they are not all from the same mother.