Back at Last!
A Four Day Recap

I know it has been a few days since we last spoke. But as you can imagine we have been going non-stop since Monday getting ready to come home. We are back! We actually arrived on Thursday about 2:00pm. Of course it was not without major drama. After a wonderful weekend we could barely wait to get started on our trip home. Monday and Tuesday were fairly uneventful. Our nursing schedule started each day between 7:00-8:ooam and ended around 11:00pm each day. Ernie and I were in constant motion going up and down the stairs to the kitchen, administering medicine, checking mother’s temperature, and keeping her as comfortable as we could. June’s nausea has been the challenge we have faced the most. These bouts of nausea seemingly come along randomly and can be quite intense. We have a variety of oral medications available but sometimes the act of swallowing them with this condition can lead to further complications. Even to mention a word which might be food or restaurant could incite the nausea. A cold cloth with ice held against her neck was one of the best ways to calm the nausea. The spells usually came under control within 15-20 minutes if we responded immediately.

Wednesday was June’s day to visit her infectious disease doctor and orthopedic surgeon. We were up by 6:30am and the first task of the day was to get the nausea under control and determine what type of breakfast mother would find appealing. As we readied ourselves for the first appointment at 10:00am, mom’s day was not off to a good start. It was raining and we were getting all of the equipment we would need for the day. With a wheelchair, walker, infusion pump and a pouch full of medicine we headed out. Dr. Thornton is the doctor who has monitored and identified the severe infection that caused mother’s setback three weeks ago. We had to wait 1-1/2 hours to meet with her. I guess all things happen for a reason. Dr. Thornton was not too happy with the incision on mom’s front side. It had once again had turned red and become warm to the touch. June had been on some high dollar antibiotics through the week and we had just received a fairly large shipment of these I-V antibiotics the day before in anticipation of our trip home. Dr. Thornton changed the I-V antibiotics for good reason as we found out. Apparently a new strain of infection had been detected and required this change. Dr. Thornton then asked us if we would consider sticking around till Monday. The three of us just looked at this woman like she was crazy and said there was no way. We ended up throwing out $350.00 of medication in the trash that we had just received the day before the appointment. They immediately started a bolus dose of the new antibiotic and were hooking up the I-V as we rolled mom down to the orthopedics office. Another hour passed before we saw Dr. Shaffer. He had been the reason we remained in Lexington the last ten days. They removed the staples from mom’s incision that had just been diagnosed as suspect of additional infection. The 18” incision extended from one hip to the other.

We returned to the St. Agnes House around 4:00pm. Mother had been up and in the wheelchair over 8 hours by the time we returned. She was in bad need of rest and food by this point. We fed her and put her to bed and started preparing the car for departure. At no time was it ever suggested, as stressful and hectic as the day had been that we might consider not leaving. At 6:45pm we were all in the car ready to leave. Can you guess what happened next? A severe case of nausea. It was as bad as I had seen in quite a few days. Quickly I grabbed a wash cloth and a bag of frozen corn we had in the ice chest and applied the cold compress to her throat. Soon mom was able to take a crushed pill with water and within 15 minutes we were able to get started home. One of the side effects to nausea medicine is it tends to make you sleepy. That was a good thing as we were able to travel one hundred miles to just north of the Tennessee border from Lexington. We ended up stopping at a Days Inn for the night. We made it into the room about 9:00pm. We still had to eat and give mom a full compliment of medication and a brand new I-V which had just been introduced to us eight hours before. We had never setup this type of I-V infusion and had only received brief instruction just prior to our departure by the home health nurse. Libby was confident we could do it or I’m sure she would not have let us attempt it. By 11:00pm we had completed our procedures and had dinner. I tucked my parents in bed as we thanked God that we were on our way home and asked if He would grant us safe passage home without incident.

Thursday we left Williamsburg, Kentucky at 8:00am. We would have about a 325 mile drive ahead of us. For the most part the trip was uneventful. My parents slept most of the way and mother had faired the day without incident. We arrived home around 1:45pm. We were fortunate that just as we arrived at our exit the traffic was backed up just to the point that we could exit without delay. A tractor trailer had crashed into a bridge down the road and traffic eventually backed up to the Alabama line on the north bound side, about 44 miles is what I heard. Fortunately we were traveling southbound and narrowly escaped the congestion.

Home sweet home. I can tell you this was a happy moment. I think we were all in tears as we arrived. Forty five days and twenty hours we were home. We had to contact home health and set up a blood draw on Friday morning and of course our routine of medications, drains and I-V needed to be accomplished before we were able to take a deep breath and savor the moment that indeed we were back home safe and sound. Mom is in the best condition she has been in more than a month. Ernie was exhausted and his back was feeling a bit uncomfortable. We were finally able to sit back talk and reminisce of the events and time we had spent together over the course of this most incredible journey. We experienced some of the lowest lows and some great moments of success. The events of the days changed rapidly. We learned that we could take nothing for granted. For as soon as you were going through a highlight or a time of recovery, moments later you may be responding to a tense situation. This is just a fraction of the events and situations we encountered.

We are grateful to be home. All of our friends and family have shown us an incredible amount of love and support. This road to complete recovery will inevitably be filled with additional moments of extreme emotion. We will forever be grateful to each and every one of you for all you have done to support June, Ernie and our entire family during this amazing segment of June’s Journey.