Day 8

The surgical team removed the drain tube on Tony’s leg during rounds at 7 am. They said they would be sending us home. I skipped showering because the family showers were occupied and started organizing and packing everything up. I made several trips down to the parking garage, taking things back and forth from the car, and retrieved my food from the refrigerator/freezer provided for families.

Being discharged from the Huntsman is a lengthy process. It was after 10 am before we saw movement toward being released. I had to remind our nurse that we have a three-hour drive to get home so he could help prod people along. Tony had been given pain meds, so my Mr. Charming was completely unbothered. 😆

The case worker visited to confirm that we were set up with nutrition and a home health service.

The physical therapist visited with us, concerned about the three steps and no handrail leading into the house. She recommended Tony use his strong leg first, then bring up the weak leg, one step at a time. She told me how to posture myself as a support and signed off on us going home.

More waiting. Eventually, the pharmacist came through and discussed the meds we were taking home and how I would administer them to Tony. Signature required, and payment made for the over-the-counter meds insurance wouldn’t cover.

A member of the surgical team arrived. He removed the drain tubes from either side of Tony’s neck. The right tube was around six inches long. The left tube was less than three inches. Next, he removed the staples holding the Doppler wires to Tony’s skin and pulled the wires out. He cleaned up the scabs that were loose and ready to be removed from around Tony’s ear-to-ear neck wound. He unwrapped the dressing from Tony’s arm and said it was healing so well that it didn’t need a bandage. He instructed me on applying ointments. Next, he unwrapped the dressing from Tony’s leg. The healing isn’t quite complete, so he instructed me on how to change the dressing every other day and what to watch for.

The discharge nurse walked me through all of the medications again. She had me assist in changing the dressing around the feeding tube so I would know what to do. We reviewed the protocol for administering nutrition and medications through the tube. I helped Tony get dressed, and only then did she remove the two IVs from his right arm.

Tony declined a wheelchair and used the walker to get down the elevators and out to the car. We made a brief stop for fuel at Sam’s Club in Layton on our way out.

We stopped at the rest stop after the state line. Tony declined the walker. He held the handrail and stepped up normally, one foot at a time, all seven stairs. What a show-off! 🤦🏼‍♀️ Tony slept most of the way home. It was that deep breathing, healing kind of sleep you can feel. Our hero didn’t want to bother stopping for the time it would take to administer nutrition, so we pressed on.

We arrived home just after 5 pm. We’d been home about 10 minutes before the Harry Potter marathon began. 🤗 IYKYK 😆 I managed to get nutrition into our patient before I unloaded the car. This is the first time we’ve come home from the hospital after a major event and none of our people were here to greet us. An empty nest can make you happy and sad at the same time. Weird. The dogs were happy to see us.

At 7 pm, the nutrition and Tylenol kicked in. Tony couldn’t keep his eyes open and went to bed and napped for an hour. Then we caught him up on his nutrition intake for the day, and he finished watching “The Sorcerer’s Stone.” At midnight, I administered his pain meds and we turned in.