Today began early and happy; Both Bethany and I had slept well, and we were confident that she was going to be discharged today. We also knew just what a miracle the Lord has performed in her life that has allowed her to be discharged after only ten days in the hospital. Whew!
So, we ordered breakfast, watched a few youtube videos, packed and was discharged around noon. I should have known today wasn't going to go as planned when I went to the parking garage to start my van, and they the battery was dead. Totally dead. Hmmm. I called Bethany, who was waiting in a wheelchair by the lobby front door, and told her I was going to be late, and to just 'hang tight.' I would be there after I get the battery jumped. Then I called Security. By 12:30, Bethany and I were on the road again. As the song says, we just couldn't wait to be 'on the road again.' ha
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Bethany has had a throbbing toothache, so our dentist, Dr. Jardin, said that we could come to his office, and he would check Bethany's tooth out, any day, any time. So, we did. After getting gasoline at Costco, we headed the dentist's office. Dr. Jardin worked on Bethany during his lunch hour, and asked us to call him tomorrow. It was a little difficult to diagnose because Bethany was on percocet and morphine, and thus, he couldn't really tell just how much pain she was in. And we were off again.
We stopped at Petco to get Domino and Koda a couple of dog bones so they wouldn't attack us when we got home. They would just semi-attack us, and they be totally distracted by the bones. BTW: Our strategy worked. :)
We pulled through Kroger and dropped off all of her prescriptions, and then through Micky D's to get Joy a sweet tea, and surprised Joy at work with Bethany bearing gifts of tea and crumpets.
Ok....maybe not the crumpets. But we did have the tea. We joked for a bit, and then I took Bethany home by 2:20. I emptied the van and carried in all of the stuff we had accumulated in the hospital, played with the dogs and then ran some errands. I picked up the scripts at Kroger and went to the meat market. I was going to cook a large dinner for everyone celebrating Bethany's homecoming and Jonathan's trip to Jamaica in the morning.
Moving right along, I parked in the driveway, and before I even entered the house, I took down the Christmas decorations on the front porch, the bushes and the lawn and laid them in the garage, returned the empty garbage cans to the side of the house from the curb, and talked to a few neighbors.
I then put both dogs in the van and drove them to a friend's house so they could run in her very large yard. After about 30 minutes, I returned home to a pleasant surprise. A high school friend of Bethany, and her mom and brother, had stopped by for a visit. We chatted for a little bit, all the while, Bethany was resting on her bed. She had been doing crossword puzzles, and stopped to chat.
After our friends left, I cleaned the kitchen, dusted and swept, delivered a few Christmas gifts to the neighbors, and went inside to make some phone calls. I was on the phone with a colleague from work when Bethany called me from the restroom. I hung up the phone immediately and ran to her. I recognized the tone of her voice and was positive what it meant. Unfortunately, I was correct. Bethany had been holding a drenched towel to her back and it was soaked with CSF (spinal fluid). I removed the towel and it just totally squirted out, full force, like a fountain. I immediately covered it and laid her down before her spinal headache would get worse.
I'll spare you the boring details of calling the hospital, calling the neurosurgeon, returning the ER, waiting a few hours, getting readmitted and such. I had really been looking forward to spending the evening at home with Jonathan, as he is leaving tomorrow on a nine day missions trip to Jamaica, and I haven't really seen him in the past ten days. We had planned on packing, getting his necessities, ensuring he has his money, passport, etc... Well, that didn't totally happen.
After searching 20 minutes for my keys, I ended up borrowing Joe's van, and rushed Bethany to the ER. Joe and Jonathan found my keys and Joe met me at the ER about 20 minutes later.
The ER doctors had been waiting for us, and immediately found us a room. After Bethany was settled in the ER, I returned to finish with Jonathan and to take a shower. Jonathan and I were able to ensure he was nearly finished packing, had his money, passport, deodorant, etc. (all those necessities), and then I ran to Wal-Mart for his allergy medicine, yada yada yada. I felt really bad leaving him home alone while I skirted off to the ER.
My sister, Bonnie, had flown in from Dallas this morning, to be with my mom while she had a cardio inversion and some additional heart tests at Beaumont Hospital in Detroit. Thus, while I had been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, Bonnie was traveling from Detroit to Toledo, and surprised everyone at the hospital. I didn't know that she would end up staying the night with Bethany and I.
Bethany was admitted to the third floor--a very far cry from the 5th floor neurosurgical wing. Wow! That wing had been renovated, whereas this wing had not. I found her, Joe and Bonnie in a very small semi-private room. Semi-private is really just another term for, 'you have to share your room with another sick person, pray you don't catch anything, and that you don't have to listen to their music or TV when you have a spinal headache.' The first thing I noticed was there weren't any chairs, because the room was so small. Yikes.
Bonnie and I convinced Joe to ask a nurse for a recliner so that I could spend the night with Bethany. Believe me, she wasn't going to stay alone. The nurse immediately said that we could have a private room, especially considering Bethany couldn't handle any noise. Whew. That was easy. After about 30 minutes, we were transferred to a HUGE, private room-complete with a stove, kitchen, bathroom, bells and whistles. It may not have been remodeled, but it was definitely large enough for 10 recliner chairs. Unfortunately, there were not any recliners. It had two tables and four chairs, but none of them reclined.
Hmmm. Bethany settled in quickly, and I had already given her two percocet (stashed in my purse) because the doctor hadn't actually ordered them into the system yet, and she was due to receive them. They immediately took effect, and before long, Bethany, Bonnie and I were looking at her pictures on her laptop, watching more youtube and godvine videos and just laughing and conversing--rather quietly, I may add.
Although Bethany shed some tears of frustration and headache, even she believes that she will be discharged tomorrow. This may be reminiscient of her prior surgeries, however, this is much better. Her incision is leaking, however, it is only leaking near the top. When Bethany had her drain removed a few days ago, the doctor took his staple gun (definitely looked like one from Home Depot, only it wasn't orange and I assume it was sterile), and added two staples. Without any anesthetic, if I may say so myself. I nearly fainted watching it. Well, another doctor removed all twenty staples the following morning, thus the area underneath the added two staples, had very little time to heal.
We think that this is just a matter of sealing that area. We are waiting to hear what her Neurosurgeon, Dr. Healy, says in the morning. Hopefully, he will use the medical glue and not the staple gun thing this time, and we'll be outta here before noon. I really want to see Jonathan before he leaves for Jamaica. I have a major doctor appt tomorrow at 11:00 at UTMC, yada yada yada.
The bottom line is this: The Lord is working everything out; this is merely a glitch in the entire scheme of things. Bethany is going to be fine. It's unfortunate, but she'll have one less day to recuperate before classes begin on Monday. It's been such a blessing to have Aunt Bonnie here for the evening. She will be catching an early morning flight to Dallas and we have been able to catch up with her on a lot of things. We are anxious to learn how the Lord is going to use this time. I have already seen Bethany's heroism, kindness and patience shine throughout this entire experience.
In the ten days since her surgery, she has yet to complain or say an unkind or mean word to anyone. She has been cheery when she had every right to be sad, and has put on a face of heroism in the face of adversity. I am so very proud of her, and she is setting such a high standard for patients at this hospital. We have yet to meet anyone who hasn't commented on her pleasant demeanor, especially considering everything she has been through.
Blessings and peace to each and every one of you. Again, please don't forget to pray for my mom. Her cardio-inversion was not successful, and she will be having a cat scan of her heart tomorrow. Thanks.
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