Day 8 - The Great Escape

My apologies for this being a little late...but as Susan starts to feel better I get a little busier.  Doesn't leave a lot of time for blog posts and social media.

When I went to the hospital Monday morning, I was greeted by Susan who was starting to get herself together in preparation for leaving the hospital.  The Docs had been by and had reviewed her telemetry from the last 24 hours which seemed to be fine.  Her little blip of V-Tac was probably just normal post op recovery stuff.

Susan's Telemtry came off on Monday morning
When this comes off you are heading home!

With things moving in the right direction and it being Monday...a lot of people were in their offices today.  It gave me a chance to talk to some folks I have worked with as part of the Stollery Family Centred Care Council and I also ran into some other familiar faces from our past.  It was a lot of fun.  A couple of our "associates" from the past stopped by to visit Susan as well.  I am really glad we got to see some of these people. before we left.  Some have played a big part in out lives and it was nice to show them some pictures of our kids and let them know how well Russell is doing.  One of the cool things that I got to see was some of the renderings of what the new Pediatric ICUs are going to look like.  This will be a huge change from where they are currently situated.

Artist Rendering of the new Pediatric ICU at the
Stollery Children's Hospital

It was a lot fun socializing as it does feel like a lot of the pressure is now off, but it is safe to say that Susan and I were anxious to get out of the hospital and getting back home.

I really appreciated Susan's attitude as I brought her all her civilian clothes and she began getting herself ready to leave.  She had a shower, did her make up, and hair.  It was just like being at home...me anxious to go somewhere and her taking her sweet time getting ready...lol.  She was determined to leave the hospital on "her" terms.  I admire that fighting spirit.

In spite of her spirit there is a reality to be faced.  She is only a few days post op and her recovery is a long one.  She has to be extremely careful how she moves and any bump or movement can send her through the roof.  She is extremely tender.  Managing her pain is a challenge as well...she is great on Tylenol and Ibuprofen during the day but sleeping is really painful and she needs a little more pain med for that.  The heavier duty meds make her feel awful.  The whole pain management thing is a balancing act.

We escaped from the hospital just a bit after noon.  We are staying at my Aunt's house which is about 10 mins from the hospital.  It was a nice hurdle to get past; to be out of the hospital.

We were very anxious to get home to see the kids and there was flight that would leave Edmonton a little after 6PM.  Susan felt she couldn't handle everything all in one day...so we decided to stay the night and leave Edmonton on a Noon flight on Tuesday.