My cousin S. spent the night to cover Boy Child so I could get to the hospital early and be together with DH for any discharge planning discussion. When I got to the hospital, Titanium Girl was in a bit of pain. I told her we should probably get her up and walk a bit to stretch out those back muscles. I had brought her slip on tennis shoes, and they gave her better stability than the traction socks she’s been walking around in. We did a circuit of the unit, saw one of her favorite nurses from her previous unit (Nurse K. No the other Nurse K.), then got her back into bed. Weekend Night Nurse L. went off shift, replaced by the same Weekend Day Nurse L. we’d had the previous day. DH wanted to grab some breakfast from the McDonald’s downstairs, and Titanium Girl asked for some hotcakes. She ate a bit of those, then the official hospital breakfast arrived with cinnamon pancakes and the “purple grapes” Day Nurse L. had requested specifically at Titanium Girl’s request. The pancakes didn’t appeal, but the grapes were great!
Dr. M. the Spine Fellow came while DH was napping, so I woke him up and we talked discharge. We talked about our pain management plan and discharge meds and GI issues/progress, and he pronounced Titanium Girl ready to go home, probably before lunch. Our next step was a trip down to the x-ray lab for standing x-rays of Dr. C.’s handiwork. Day Nurse L. brought the wheelchair, and we set off for basement of the hospital. On the way down I asked if we could detour to PICU on the way back up, because there was an autographed poster of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen there, and Titanium Girl loves Hunger Games (she was Katniss Everdeen for Halloween this year). Once the films were complete, Day Nurse L. obligingly took us to the PICU, and we got a picture of Titanium Girl with the Katniss poster. It was only a couple minutes’ extra time, which can be a lot to a busy nurse, but it meant even more to Titanium Girl.
Dr. C. called to discuss discharge about 20 minutes after we got back to the room and after having already checked in with Dr. M. He reminded us to avoid ibuprofen and other NSAIDs (these interfere with the fusion process), and he advised us to make sure Titanium Girl is drinking lots of fluids and taking vitamins, especially D3 for her bone growth. She may also need some protein shakes after having not eaten in so long. He said she may be hunching over a bit more toward the right where the more painful of the two thorocotomies and excised rib is, but that should improve over time, and her posture should improve with it. He asked for probably the hundredth time if there was anything else he could do for us, and I said no and thanked him profusely. At that point I was looking at the clock and hoping the timing worked out so that Titanium Girl could have a last pain pill right before the trip home.
DH took a load of things to the car and moved it to the patient pick up area. My eye was still on the clock as time on Titanium Girl’s current dose of pain medication was running down. Weekend Day Nurse L. came in with a student nurse to remove leads, check dressings, and take out the last IV. We got Titanium Girl into some regular pajammas for the trip home, then Nurse L. showed us the standing x-rays. I took a picture so Titanium Girl could see better and so DH could see when he got back. The correction is really dramatic to see, especially compared to the two right angles she previously had in her spine. I still see an angle between what I think is L4 and L5, and I don’t know if that’s attributable to the way Titanium Girl was standing (it’s still hard to stand fully straight) or whether that’s just the best that could be corrected. We’ll need to ask Dr. C. at follow up in a few weeks if that angle is truly there and if it sets Titanium Girl up for a greater chance of further fusion in the future (she already has a chance anyway), but for now she should be fine.
Time was draining away along with Titanium Girl’s last pain pill, and Titanium Girl was nibbling and occasionally dozing. A different nurse came on the call speaker asking if we wanted her to have a last pain pill before the trip home, and I said absolutely! Nurse L. came in with it as well as the discharge paperwork and prescriptions. Without my even saying anything, she’d pushed discharge back just a bit specifically so that Titanium Girl could get that last dose in for the ride home. Talk about a great nurse! She went over discharge instructions with DH and me, told us what to look for if there were problems with the incisions and what to do with the steri-strips (basically nothing; they’ll fall off on their own), when she can have a real shower rather than the sponge baths she’s been having, and who to call for what issues. She also had already written down the times she’d last taken her various medications so we would know when we can give her the next doses when we get home. We signed off on the discharge paperwork, and I felt, not for the first time, as though we were taking home a newborn. Would we be able to get her comfortable at home? Would we be able to keep her pain managed? Would we even be able to get her in and out of the car ok?
The next 15 minutes or so until the transport person arrived passed interminably. But she finally arrived, and we got Titanium Girl loaded up and packed with pillows for comfort. The trip down was blissfully uneventful, and we helped her into the car, sitting down in the seat, then pivoting into the car without twisting (quite a lot easier said than done). We packed pillows around her as she needed and left for home, DH trying to avoid every bump in the road where possible. After a brief detour to the pharmacy to drop off her prescriptions, we made it home, helped her to pivot out of the seat and stand, then walk into the house. As I walked with her to her bedroom, she took a deep breath and said, “I love this place.” Couldn’t have said it better myself…
