T - 0 to T-2: Saturday: Calling Mother and Going Home

I wanted to catchup on this last day in the hospital while I can still remember.

Friday night to Saturday morning seemed like I had a much better night's rest with fewer interruptions. They seemed like they were being merciful and letting me sleep. However, I think I missed one of my four hour percocet fixes.

I woke up about 5am and it seemed like my GI system was showing some activity -- at least a little bit. I also felt chills and was a bit nauseous. I was able to go back to sleep.

When I woke up later, I felt terrible and could not imagine that I would go home that day. When I reported my GI activity, the food service person came right in and offered me this huge variety of food for breakfast and lunch. I thought I was on a cruise -- I expected the Viennese table for dessert. None of it really appealed to me -- I got dry toast and yogurt for breakfast and hummus and pita bread for lunch. I kept thinking of Jackie Gleason and the "Loud Mouth", where Art Carney would order a piece of toast floating in a bowl of prune juice.

I got back on the percocet. I also found that Joanne was back, something that I didn't expect because of the weekend -- things were looking up. We talked about discharge and I opted for 3pm.

Barbara and I called Kate and decided on 12:30pm to call mother and break the news. I also called my brother, Keith, and asked that he go over and be with my mother. Kate and I made the call. It was quite a shock to my mother, but she did well. At 90 years old, she has been through a lot of things. I told her that I would be home later that day and fill her in on all the details.

Barbara and I walked back to my room. Joanne came in and asked about going home (Barbara had everything packed and laid out on her bed). We said that we were ready whenever it would be good for her. She came back shortly with all of the paperwork and carefully explained everything. A couple of signatures and we were ready to go.

Fran's sister-in-law, Kay, drove us home. She was wonderful to us throughout this whole thing and I, especially, appreciated her gentile driving.

We got to my mother's in Farmingdale by mid-afternoon. I spent a lot of time talking to my mother and Barbara went to town and filled my prescriptions.