Tuesday, 6/17/09
So much has happen over the weekend and this week and there haven't been two free minutes to update the blog!
Pete was blessed to have a fantastic nurse that went above and beyond for four days in a row. He went from having to be literary dragged out of his bed or a chair to being able to walk around the room, down the hall, use the bathroom, and eat by himself in those four days. I wrote a recommendation and turned in on her behalf and mentioned to everyone I could. I embarrassed the poor girl, but she deserved the credit.
The doctor told us on Friday that Pete was ready to be released, except that she wanted him to gain more strength and be able to walk across the room. I don't think she had any idea that this would happen over the weekend.
Friday I accepted a job from a company I had been doing contract work for since last fall. They are a fantastic firm and understand completely my time commitments to Pete and are willing to be flexible.
Monday morning was my first day of work and we had planned on having Pete released. I knew it was going to be hard to coordinate everything. I had a very busy day at work and arrived at the hospital at 2:00. By the time I spoke with the social worker and doctor, it was just too late in the day.
We were sure that Pete could not get up the steps to the second floor of the hospitality house and there was nothing available on the first floor. They could not find something else for us and Pete was getting some magnesium that was going to run late into the day. We agreed to release him Tuesday.
I went to work Tuesday and left my cell number with everyone, but when I returned we were no closer to getting discharged than before. I was getting anxious. I had been working very hard and tried to arrange everything I could on top of a busy new job. It just didn't seem to be enough.
One of the nicest things happened in that one of our fellow residents at the hospitality house who was staying on the first floor while her husband had been in the hospital for the past month agreed to move out to a motel since they were going home later this week anyhow so that we could have the room. I just couldn't imagine someone doing something like that for us!
By the time everything was done, we weren't released from the hospital until 6:30. Pete was exhausted and really too tired to even leave. Next week I have to be in Louisiana to do 4 days of training. We had previously thought that Pete would just stay in the hospital getting stronger and then stay over that period before being discharged. But since he had such an improvement, I didn't want to hold him back.
Because of the room switch, we got back to the hospitality house and Pete just wanted to go to bed. Honestly I did too. They still had to clean things out of the downstairs room and then clean the whole room and wash and dry all the bedding before we could move in. I really was too tired to move our stuff downstairs.
I had it pretty much together already and put the rest of the things in a stack to move. I sat with Peter downstairs in the living room and finally suggested that we at least see if I could push him up the stairs and we could just go to bed and move the following day.
About that time the house manager came out and said the room was ready to move into, but we would need to wait on the bedding. Well, all of this dragged out and I did finally get Pete settled into bed about 8-8:30 and I moved things and waited on bedding for my bed until almost 10:00. I was so tired and hurt so badly that I was almost in tears. Two days I had been pushed so hard and this was just too much this evening.
We both went to bed and slept like a couple of logs in our separate twin beds. We really didn't want to get up this morning. We had to get cleaned up, have breakfast, and then be at the clinic for labs by 8:30. We made it.
We were at the doctor's office by 9:45 for a 10:00 appointment and sat there until 12:30 or so. We got a chance to get a few words in about what we wanted to say to the doctor. I think this was in part because he had someone with him. Then he ordered another bone marrow and PET Scan and wanted us back in the office on Friday.
We rushed off to these (and are still there at this writing) and have sat in waiting rooms and had tests done all day and evening. We will be crawling into our room about 9:00 tonight and collapse.
I guess we'll learn more on Friday.
I didn't get to work much today except remotely from waiting rooms. I'll probably spend most of the next two days working as much as possible. I'll leave Sunday for Louisiana.
Pete was blessed to have a fantastic nurse that went above and beyond for four days in a row. He went from having to be literary dragged out of his bed or a chair to being able to walk around the room, down the hall, use the bathroom, and eat by himself in those four days. I wrote a recommendation and turned in on her behalf and mentioned to everyone I could. I embarrassed the poor girl, but she deserved the credit.
The doctor told us on Friday that Pete was ready to be released, except that she wanted him to gain more strength and be able to walk across the room. I don't think she had any idea that this would happen over the weekend.
Friday I accepted a job from a company I had been doing contract work for since last fall. They are a fantastic firm and understand completely my time commitments to Pete and are willing to be flexible.
Monday morning was my first day of work and we had planned on having Pete released. I knew it was going to be hard to coordinate everything. I had a very busy day at work and arrived at the hospital at 2:00. By the time I spoke with the social worker and doctor, it was just too late in the day.
We were sure that Pete could not get up the steps to the second floor of the hospitality house and there was nothing available on the first floor. They could not find something else for us and Pete was getting some magnesium that was going to run late into the day. We agreed to release him Tuesday.
I went to work Tuesday and left my cell number with everyone, but when I returned we were no closer to getting discharged than before. I was getting anxious. I had been working very hard and tried to arrange everything I could on top of a busy new job. It just didn't seem to be enough.
One of the nicest things happened in that one of our fellow residents at the hospitality house who was staying on the first floor while her husband had been in the hospital for the past month agreed to move out to a motel since they were going home later this week anyhow so that we could have the room. I just couldn't imagine someone doing something like that for us!
By the time everything was done, we weren't released from the hospital until 6:30. Pete was exhausted and really too tired to even leave. Next week I have to be in Louisiana to do 4 days of training. We had previously thought that Pete would just stay in the hospital getting stronger and then stay over that period before being discharged. But since he had such an improvement, I didn't want to hold him back.
Because of the room switch, we got back to the hospitality house and Pete just wanted to go to bed. Honestly I did too. They still had to clean things out of the downstairs room and then clean the whole room and wash and dry all the bedding before we could move in. I really was too tired to move our stuff downstairs.
I had it pretty much together already and put the rest of the things in a stack to move. I sat with Peter downstairs in the living room and finally suggested that we at least see if I could push him up the stairs and we could just go to bed and move the following day.
About that time the house manager came out and said the room was ready to move into, but we would need to wait on the bedding. Well, all of this dragged out and I did finally get Pete settled into bed about 8-8:30 and I moved things and waited on bedding for my bed until almost 10:00. I was so tired and hurt so badly that I was almost in tears. Two days I had been pushed so hard and this was just too much this evening.
We both went to bed and slept like a couple of logs in our separate twin beds. We really didn't want to get up this morning. We had to get cleaned up, have breakfast, and then be at the clinic for labs by 8:30. We made it.
We were at the doctor's office by 9:45 for a 10:00 appointment and sat there until 12:30 or so. We got a chance to get a few words in about what we wanted to say to the doctor. I think this was in part because he had someone with him. Then he ordered another bone marrow and PET Scan and wanted us back in the office on Friday.
We rushed off to these (and are still there at this writing) and have sat in waiting rooms and had tests done all day and evening. We will be crawling into our room about 9:00 tonight and collapse.
I guess we'll learn more on Friday.
I didn't get to work much today except remotely from waiting rooms. I'll probably spend most of the next two days working as much as possible. I'll leave Sunday for Louisiana.
posted by BethPowell at 9:04 PM
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