Hospital Update #12, June 23, 2023

 Early yesterday morning, Amanda suddenly bolted upright, startling me awake, and declared that she was hungry. We’d gotten a refrigerator after the first few days so that we could ferret away bits of her meals that she hadn’t finished, in case she (or i) needed snacks later. It was getting pretty full.

After everything we’d gone through over the last week and a half, this was refreshing. She demolished a fruit cup. When the nurse came to check on us, Amanda told her that, as long as her breakfast stayed down, she’d like to go home today.

Breakfast came. She ate more than half of it, and the waiting began. By 9 am, it looked like she was in the clear. She said she was ready. The nurse contacted the doctor about discharge papers.

Within a couple hours, she was hungry again. The nurse brought her a sandwich. She ate the entire thing. Her lunch arrived not long after, and she ate most of that too. Someone came to take her dinner order while she was working on lunch, as usual, and she told him she was not expecting to be there for dinner. He said to call him if anything changed.

Around 1:00, the nurse came in to tell us that everything was ready for us to leave, we were just waiting on the doctor to sign the discharge papers, and we’d be clear to go.

So we waited. And waited. Her food stayed down. She even had another snack.

The hospital social worker came in to let us know that, actually, Medicare was not going to cover the wheelchair. A physical therapist had visited Amanda at some point in the last few days while i was out of the room, and she had been able to walk from one end of her room to the other (they’re calling it 20 feet, but i do not believe it’s that far), and even though she needed to be held the entire way, Medicare declared she is able to walk, and doesn’t need a wheelchair.

Um, i’m sorry, what?

They provided a walker and a shower chair instead. The walker is entirely useless to her, she doesn’t have strength in her arms any more than her legs, so this isn’t really going to help her get anywhere. The shower chair is helpful, though.

The social worker did tell us that she had gone ahead and submitted for a $600 grant through The Change Reaction Fund on our behalf, which we were almost sure to get approved for. All that would be required would be to send a thank-you card. She suggested we use that money to get a wheelchair. We ordered one from Amazon, as well as a rollator, the kind of walker with wheels on all 4 legs and a seat in the middle so she can sit down when she gets too tired (after about 25 feet). Those should both be here tomorrow.

The hospital wouldn’t take the walker back. So. Um. I guess we have this thing now? We’re gonna see if we can donate it to someone in our RV park that can use it.

We waited and waited. We were starting to wonder if she should call in that dinner order.

She was finally discharged from the hospital at 5:15 pm. Only seven hours after asking.

We spent the night at the hotel with Tammi. We swung by home on the way to pick up Zuul. Amanda had wanted to take a shower, but she passed out almost immediately after we got into the room. Having been sitting at the hospital all day, i took Zuul for a 3 mile walk.

This morning, the social worker texted me to let me know that we’ve been approved for the grant, and it would be in the mail today. That’s incredibly helpful, that covers the wheelchair and rollator, as well as the massive parking charges i’ve racked up at the hospital and some of the overpriced and undersatisfying cafeteria food i’ve been eating all week.

We left the hotel and headed home, where i had a bunch of cleaning to do to prepare for her first meeting with the Home Health team. Today it was just one guy who came in to do essentially onboarding paperwork, going over the broad strokes of her medical history, taking her vitals, and assessing her needs. He set up appointments for additional members of the Home Health Care Team to make future home visits. A nurse will be checking in on her weekly, and a couple others will drop by from time to time.

Since they left, she’s been taking a nap. Our new bed was delivered while she was hospitalized. I slept on it one night while Tammi stayed at the hospital with her, but this is her first test run. I hope she likes it. I think it’s nice. I should also mention that we were able to afford to replace our mattress thanks to a monetary gift from the Marshall Lions Club, which paid for that as well as some other things to improve her quality of life as she continues her journey through cancer treatment.

Very happy to be out of the hospital. Tammi is with us for another two weeks, so it will be nice for Amanda to spend time with her mom on the outside for a little bit. After that we have more friends coming to visit in July and August, so we’re looking forward to that! Hoping to not be in the hospital for those visits!

Thanks everybody for all the kind messages and comments while we were in the hospital for nine days. I know i haven’t responded to all of you personally yet. There really have been a ton of them and my own energy levels have been almost zero through this. Like, i brought my laptop and notebooks to the hospital, thinking i’d work on some of my writing projects, but all i was able to do in there was scroll through memes on Tumblr and watch Bake Off. It’s been a nightmare. At least that part is over. Love you all.