Picking up where I left off yesterday – I had a few texts from Lou during the night which indicated he was doing OK. This one came in after breakfast:
“Breakfast was a serving of canned pears and reconstituted powdered scrambled eggs that would suck the moisture out of the sahara desert.”
Text from Lou
This is vintage Lou. I have to dock him a point for not including a photo.
This one was encouraging:
“PT went well… went up and down 6-7 stairs; did walking with walker… getting iced down… they might give pain pill before we go…”
Text from Lou
I dropped the dogs off at the groomers, and continued on to Bangor. Thank you, Teresa for picking up the dogs and getting them safely home. I hope they did not scam you out of another stop at McDonald’s.
I arrived at the hospital at about 11am, and was able to go right to Lou’s room. Masks are required, and they still ask the Covid questions, but visiting procedures are back to normal.
He had a nice single room on the surgical orthopedic ward, with a fancy bed right out of Star Wars.
By the time I had arrived, he was just waiting for discharge papers and instructions. This part took a while … a rather long while. They brought him lunch. Fortunately, I was there to capture this beef stew for eternity (he did not eat his lunch – nothing wrong with it, he just wasn’t hungry.).
We had to wait almost 3 hours for discharge. Apparently, the charge nurse does discharge, and she was tied up giving an emergency blood transfusion. Perhaps they need a Plan B, but it all worked out.
Getting him out to the car was fun, and getting him into the car was even more fun. He first tried getting in the back seat so he could keep the leg straight:
The seat was just a little high and not quite wide enough:
The security guard suggested loading him in the back like a sack of potatoes. Lou did not think rolling around for an hour sounded like much fun.
With no other option, we put the front passenger seat back as far as it could go. He was able to get up on the seat. The question was – would he be able to bend the new leg enough to get it into the car? Credit to Lou, he persevered and got the leg in with an inch to spare. It had to be painful.
We then had to stop at Hannaford by the hospital for prescriptions. Amazingly, they were ready, and I was in and out in 10 minutes. I received some serious navigational assistance leaving the parking lot, and I braced for a long ride home.
Lou: “You were supposed to turn left. Can’t you see the arrow?”
Me: “It looked like it wanted me to go right. I can’t see it very well because of the sun.”
Lou: “Well just turn the damn GPS off if you aren’t going to use it.”
Me: “Don’t you need to take a nap or something?”
Actual conversation 6/16/22
After an hour’s drive through mostly fields of green, we arrived home.
Our friend Roland was there to help us. Roland is a volunteer fireman, soon to add EMT to his list of accomplishments. He helped us a few years ago when Lou had his first knee surgery. We greatly appreciate Roland’s help, especially since our arrival time was so uncertain.
Getting out of the car was smoother than getting in, and Lou was able to bend his leg just enough to get his foot out the door.
After a little rest, Lou headed up the steps into the house, and then tackled the stairs to the upstairs master bedroom. He did very well, with some support from Roland:
We will leave this adventure here, and pick up tomorrow. Check in to see if we all survived the night.
Stay Safe !
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