Finally going home

Regular Room/ Home Wednesday

            I met JohnDeere around 7:00 again and he said he had slept better.  I went down and got breakfast to go because I didn’t want to miss anything that was said.  Soon I met a nurse, Sherry, who said he couldn’t go home until his pain was controlled.  She and I had a come-to-Jesus meeting: I said “If he’s here where it is obnoxiously loud, people bother him every ten minutes, and it takes ½ an hour for him to get medicine, his pain won’t be controlled.  I don’t want him to leave before he’s ready, but if all he needs is rest–he can’t get that here.”

            She said, “I agree with you, but with a head injury we like to watch them closely for a while.”

            “I was told that would be 72 hours and that was mid-night!”

            “Oh. . .ok. . .”

            We ate breakfast together then Dr. Young and a trauma doctor both came in and said he could go.  He slept well through the morning.  At lunch, he ate while I went to the cafeteria for one last time.  I took some things to the car–and with a thankful heart, I turned in my room key and paid my $60.00 bill (for my 3-night stay).

            Later, while he was sleeping, I got a little anxious, so I went to ask the nurse if there was a checklist he had to complete and what was left for him to do before going home.  She said there was a checklist and he was finished with it!  All she had to do was type up his discharge papers–she guessed it would be around 2:00 before she was finished.

            She said that when he woke up, she would unplug his IV and he could get dressed.  This happened around 1:00 and I was so excited to see him out of the gown and in his sexy shirt–which I brought him on purpose.  He went back to rest–a volunteer brought him some cards–the nurse gave us some instructions–he signed some papers and I went to get the car as a volunteer pushed him to the front door–it was 3:40 p.m.

            The sunlight seemed to bother him as he waited for me, but he laid his seat back and settled in as I battled school bus traffic on State Street.  I stopped at CVS because he needed more pain meds.  He also asked for some sun glasses and a Mountain Dew.  I got him all fixed up and we made it home around 5:00 p.m.  He went straight to the recliner and settled in.

            Before too long, Heidi and Randy stopped by to say “good bye” before going back to Indianapolis for work tomorrow.  Heidi volunteered to come back next week to take him to his first appointment.  Then Dan Peters, Mr. Painter’ best man and JohnDeere’s fellow tailgate rider, stopped by.  He said that Andrew hadn’t been driving recklessly, but maybe a little faster at the turn then he should have.  Dan was able to grab the tailgate strap as he watched JohnDeere slide to the edge, grab for the corner of the bed, and then fall–landing first on his lower back, bouncing back up (still conscious), and then landing on his head and going limp.  I was glad to hear the story from his point of view.  He felt guilty for not being able to do anything, but we were just glad he hadn’t fallen also.

            When Dan left, I took my socks off, put on some pajama pants and fell asleep on the couch.  I was awakened by my mom who had brought us supper: Johnny Marzetti casserole, garlic bread, and brownies.  She talked to JohnDeere a minute while I baked the casserole and put away the dishes she had washed for me.

            JohnDeere and I ate, then fell back asleep–until about midnight when we went upstairs to bed.  JohnDeere had a difficult time getting comfortable as he went from chair to bed to chair to couch and back to the bed, but we both slept in and even though we were awake several times during the night, I felt more rested than I had at the hospital.  It was so nice to be home.