Home At Last

Well, we made it home! We left the hospital this afternoon around 3:00 and made it home a little after 4:00, just after Binny arrived home from school.

The home nursing company dropped off the infusion pump supplies and antibiotics this afternoon so we could start the first antibiotic treatment at 7:00 tonight. The hospital staff had said that the home care nurse would come to show us how to run the equipment, but by 5 minutes to 7:00, still no nurse. I called the nurse hotline to see where our gal was and finally around 8:00 she showed up. I'm not sure what the deal was with that but when she finally showed up everything went well and Mae received her first home treatment. It's a little scary to be the one responsible for dumping strong antibiotics right into her veins, but I'm sure I will gain confidence as the days go on. The next treatment is at 1 Am and already I'm starting to fade but I hate to go to sleep and chance missing the next one because I'm so tired.

The important thing is that she's home and showing huge improvements. Now the fun begins of trying to get the insurance company to cover as much of this as possible. The doctor visits, the trip to the ER, the first hospital stay, the ambulance to Children's hospital, Children's hospital, the countless diagnostic tests, the doctors (because that's billed separate from the hospital charges) and of course the home nursing that we started tonight. I try to tell myself not to worry about the money, but I can't help it. The bills will start coming soon and I know that although our insurance is pretty good, we will end up with some hefty bills. Nothing we can do about it I guess, she's feeling better and I'm very thankful for that.

For the rest of the week I plan to keep her home from school. She still has the stitches in her right ankle and the PICC line is still so new, I would hate for something to happen to it. She will go to the doctor on Thursday to have the stitches removed and have a follow up with her (fantastic, no-nonsense) pediatrician. And boy do I have a list of things to go over with her!

Tomorrow the Gardener goes back to work, Binny has a field trip that I was supposed to help chapperone (Grandma is going in my place) and back to the farm for me. This whole new schedule along with our old schedule will take some getting used to. After a few days I'm sure we'll get the new routine down but right now I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. A friend is making dinner for us tomorrow night which is awesome, and my brother is coming over on Friday to help plant the garden. Then company rolls into town this weekend... That should be fine too and will maybe give me a little time to catch my breath as I will have my Mom and Grandma to keep the kids entertained and help out with cooking.

Thank you to everyone who has been thinking of us over the last week and the many well wishes we received. My daily blog count has doubled from all of the people checking in on Mae. I plan to continue to update Mae's recovery for anyone who is interested but mostly for my record keeping. This blog has been so wonderful for me lately. I have gone back to check my notes many times and found it so helpful, especially when all the days seem to have smushed together. I wish I would have started blogging years ago, the Internet has a much better memory than I do.