Good Morning! It is 24° now, may get to 40° today. Sky was really clear this morning. Looked like a full moon when I was going out to get into the truck this morning.
Hope the healing is going good buppies and Don.
Yesterday ended up being kind of a lazy day. Other than bringing in wood for the fire, not sure I accomplished much else. Today is back to work, hopefully it is quiet. Working today and tomorrow then off until January 10.
The remote for the Dish box quit working Friday. I tried to link an universal remote, wouldn't work. Wife called Dish (it is her account), seems our Dish receiver box is 21 years old! The woman with Dish tech support was shocked there was one that old still working. So we are getting an upgrade at no charge. Seems some features are soon going to be lost with our current box due to the antiquity of the software.
And this will be it.
I got the blood drawn and waited until the results posted. The one liver enzyme stayed stable, the other dropped! This was good news.
JoAnne was my day shift nurse's aide. I really wanted Mikaela to be my nurse's aide on my last day. Got breakfast then a visit from Kandi. At least she was going to be the charge nurse. She started the conversation off by asking me if I had heard any rumors. Knowing her sense of humor, I said: "yea, I heard you were tired of my sh*t and are going to throw me out on the sidewalk today". She busted up laughing and replied: "I told those night shift nurses not to tell you the truth".
Then she got serious. The doctor had seen my blood work and now I needed to have a "mobility test" that was to test my ability to move around and breath. It required physical therapy, pulmonary, and medical to be present to monitor and rate the outcome. Kandi was going to be the medical representative, she had to coordinate the rest with the other 2 departments. She told me I was going to need to spend more time moving around than I had been so far with my PT sessions.
She managed to pull it all together quickly and mid-morning I got my mobility test. BOL stayed above 97% the entire time, I did a lot of laps around the room with the walker. They went out in the hall, talked, Kandi came in and said I had passed with flying colors. She told me to call my wife and alert her that would most likely be released that afternoon.
About 1:30, Kandi showed up again. She told me would not be official until the doctor signed the order, she had been told by the doctor to prepare my discharge paperwork. She said that was going to take a while and someone else was going to be covering for her. She had JoAnne start getting my stuff ready in the room for me to leave. She also told me to call my wife and have her plan on being at the hospital about 3:00.
I was shocked, no other way to say it.
About 2:00, Dr. C came in. We talked a bit, he told me he was satisfied with what he say in the blood work and he was going to sign the order to release me. He gave me 2 prescriptions to be filled. He also told me no hot or spicy food for at least 30 days.....that would last maybe 10 days.

I was also to schedule an appointment with my personal doctor for a follow up check up and blood work within 2 weeks.
At 2:30 it was official. JoAnne got serious about getting stuff ready. Before I could get dressed Kandi had to remove the pick line. Then to slowly get dressed and into the wheel chair. It was after 3 by then, my wife texted me she was at the south entrance as instructed. Finally everything was ready.
And then Mikaela came walking into the room. Seems was going to work afternoons that week. She was shocked to see me sitting in a wheel chair ready to leave. She told me: "I am going to miss you but really happy you are going home for Christmas". She then asked JoAnne if she could help take me out. JoAnne agreed and Mikaela took the bag of my stuff (wasn't much) and walked beside the wheel chair taking me outside. She walked with her hand on my should most of the way out. Told me she wanted to meet my wife.
We got outside and it was drizzling. Which I guess is appropriate because it was raining the Monday I went into the hospital. I told the nurse's what type of truck my wife drives which they found immediately. My wife saw us and got out. Mikaela introduced herself to my wife, told her the same thing she told me. She helped my wife get me into the truck and the seat belt on.
I asked JoAnne and Mikaela to thank everyone and wish them a Merry Christmas. And the same to them. Mikaela squeezed my arm and said for us to have a Merry Christmas. She shut the door. And with that, my wife put the truck in gear and we headed home.
The ride home was strange. I guess I was having a hard time accepting it was real. But it was and it was over. It would take me weeks to get my full mobility and strength back. But I had survived this and was home.
Everyone stay safe out there!