Tuesday September 19, 2006

Jeff went home on Tuesday 9/19.... eight days after the whole bizarre thing began.

Sunday morning they clamped Jeff's drain to monitor it for 24 hours in hopes of taking it out on Monday. That was the last major step in his recovery. Luckily things went really well and as of Monday morning the pressure was normal and he was draining spinal fluid normally on his own. They did a CT scan to make sure things were really as they seemed, and that came back normal too.

Monday afternoon Jeff got his drain out. A torturous process from what he told me (I was back at work on Monday). They can't use any anesthetic because the brain is right there, so he just had to hold on to the chair really tight and wait for the stitching to be done. Brave kid. Yet again, took it like a trooper. And then on top of that- it was still bleeding far more than it should have-- and later that night they had to add another stitch.

We went home Monday night thinking Jeff might go to the general care unit Tuesday afternoon and maybe come home on Wednesday. Now that the drain was out, they weren't monitoring anything else (catheter and A-line, everything already taken out)

Monday at 10pm we got a call from Melissa that they were moving Jeff to the general care unit then (Ellison 12). Tuesday morning Dad and I went in early and saw him... slept better without being woken every couple hours.

Jeff called me around 9:30 to ask me for breakfast (his was cold by the time he got it). I brought eggs with cheese, bacon and homefries from the cafeteria. He ate almost all of it!!! Glad to see his appetite coming back. I stayed for a little while, we watched some tv.

His team of doctors came through and told him that things looked ok for him to go home. They'd write him prescriptions for percocet and he needed to take it easy.... The nurse came through around 10:30 and told him whenever he could get his ride home, he was free to go. Mom showed up around 11:00, we got his prescriptions, put him in a wheelchair and led him to the car.

Amazing. 4 days after his second surgery and he was on his way home-- and glad to be going.