Merry Christmas!!

Last night was another miserable night in the hospital. At least they didn't forget my pain medication, but the nurses were working half shifts so there always seemed to be someone new attending to me. I also had my drain filling up like every hour and then they came in around four in the morning to draw some blood and take out my catheter. In the morning I was finally able to shower for the first time! They had to cover up the IV in my neck that was still in and they also had to cover my port that still had an IV connected to it. It felt good to have some hot water finally pouring down over me!

Before the shower DH and I tried talking to each other several times before he left with the kids for a 9 a.m. Sacrament Meeting. I felt a little nauseous with the breakfast that was brought to me and didn't end up eating very much of it. I got a little emotional about everything that was going on and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it was because DH was doing a good job managing the kids and taking them to church. He even got up early and made them some cinnamon rolls in a can for breakfast and had M&M help with the girls' hair. I think I was also a little emotional because they were so short staffed with their nurses and aides that the aide just showed me where the shower was and left me to myself to manage on my own - even though this was my first time up and showering... I think I was also emotional because I was missing my family - here it was Christmas morning and I wasn't home to be with my family.

The physical therapist came by again and wanted to walk with me but I reminded her that we hadn't done stairs yet so she said she would come back after my shower and we would go do some stairs. After my shower we walked over to the stairwell and the therapist had me walk up a flight and then back down. It wasn't too difficult for me so the therapist thought i would do just fine at home.

After lunch my surgeon's assistant came by and said everything looked good for me to go home whenever I was ready!! How exciting!! They just needed to take the IV out of my neck and then they needed to go over all of my checkout instructions, which included how to empty and take care of my drain. They took all of the tape off of my incision site and it was really stuck on there good! It took quite a while to remove it and then it was all red and covered in sore spots from the tape. The nurse came in to remove my neck IV and she had to remove it and then hold pressure on it for the next ten minutes. Then I had to lay there in the bed for an hour so the hole would close up. It ws a pretty good size IV.

When I called DH to let him know I was going to be released that afternoon, we debated not telling my parents and just showing up there at their house. Unfortunately my parents called me before we came to a decision so I told them that i had been released so we discussed what to do for Christmas dinner. We decided that my parents would bring the dinner over to my house and cook it there and then my sister's family would also come over and we would all eat at my house.

DH came around 3:00 to pick me up. I got dressed into clothes for the first time since Wednesday and then it took us a while to pack up all of my things. DH also had to run down to the pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions. When we were finally ready, the nurse got a wheelchair for me and we left the hospital! This was also my first time outside since Wednesday. The whole thing felt surreal and like I wasn't quite ready for this yet! The car ride home was uneventful and by the time we got there my parents were already there starting on the dinner. We pulled up into the driveway and DH and the kids had put a welcome home sign on the garage door. DH had printed it out before he left and the kids colored it and wrote some cute personal messages on it while he was at the hospital picking me up! It was very sweet!

As soon as we pulled in the driveway, Kitty and MJ came out the front door to greet me. Kitty ran straight to me and wanted me to pick her up. Unfortunately I can't pick up anything heavier than 10 pounds for the next 4-6 weeks while we wait for my body to heal. DH juggled the things around in his arms so he could pick her up and she just threw a screaming fit because she didn't want dad to pick her up, she wanted me to. We came inside and he set her down on the couch beside me, but she wasn't quite content with that...

Up to this point my kids haven't opened any Christmas presents and it took us a few minutes to decide how we wanted to do it now. We finally decided that we would let them open the gifts from my parents and their Christmas pajamas from me and DH after dinner and then we would do the Santa gifts and other family gifts Monday morning. DH just likes the idea of the kids sleeping and waking up to their Christmas gifts in the morning.