"Hit the Road Jack and Don't You Come Back No More"

Thursday was a very long day of waiting after a very, very long week plus of hospital life.  When Peter dropped me off after a slow long ride in because of the snow falling and traffic, he headed off to work and I headed up to the 7th floor.  Gary had been moved out of the Transplant ICU into a more regular room on the 7th floor shortly before I went home the night before, so he no longer was in the middle of all the business of the Transplant ICU.  The doctors had already been around to see him (which I had hoped had not happened yet), but breakfast had not yet arrived.  His (and the rest of their floor's) breakfast did not arrive until after I finally went and talked with a nurse after I had been there for at least 45 minutes.  She hadn't realized it yet and when she checked with the other nurses, they all said that they had noticed that it hadn't arrived yet.  Gary's nurse called the food service, and they said they were just coming.  When they delivered his food they apologized for being late, that the food cart had been brought to the 6th floor instead of the 7th.  Wonder how much longer it would have been had I not said anything.  I have learned that I need to be an advocate for Gary in a lot of ways while he is in the hospital. It's sad to say, but I often wonder what happens when people do not have family there for them.  I'm not saying it is all bad, but there are a lot of times that I have experienced that it is good that I or someone else is there for him.

I went over to the Transplant ICU to see what I could find out more about Gary's supposed discharge that day, since his nurse had no idea of what was happening. The doctors seemed to be finished with their rounds, but the pharmacist stopped me and said that she had told the surgeon she would go over Gary's medicines and explain what had been said at rounds.  She also indicated that Gary would be discharged soon.  I asked her what soon meant since I would need to call our son to pick us up.  She said, how soon can he get here.  I told her that he was on his way to work in the suburbs after having dropped me off, but if it was going to be soon, I would try to get a hold of him before he drove all the way to Wheaton. She felt that would be a good idea.  I called and he was close to home so still had another 25 minutes yet to drive to work but instead would call work and turn around and come back.  So began our day of waiting.  Gary was not discharged until around 6 pm.  So much for a quick discharge -- again a lot of hurry up and wait, something we have learned quite well how to do.

He has been home now for 2 days and is slowly improving.  The weather has been cooperating so he has taken a couple of short walks outside with one of us, which has been nice since he would much prefer to walk outside rather then inside.  He is still in a lot of pain, but our understanding is that he will have pain for awhile.  

We still have some questions, but hopefully we will be able to find out some more answers when we go back on Tuesday for a post op and post hospital stay visit at the Transplant Clinic. 

Please continue to pray for healing for Gary.  We continue to be thankful that his transplanted organs appear to be fine and that things weren't even more serious then they already were. Pray that they were able to get all the infection and that now his body can heal completely.  

Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers for all of us.  They are very much appreciated.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

~~ 2 Corinthians 9:15 NIV