Heading home!

Our home away from home
for the past four days

Four days later, my mom is heading home! Even though four days might not sound like much, it has been a tiring experience for her. After being admitted on Friday night, she was not permitted to drink anything – even water! – until Sunday afternoon, which is understandable, and yet challenging at the same time. On Monday, she was allowed to start eating small portions of food and she did well with that, so I knew she had turned the corner.

It's a good thing she was admitted because she ended up needing a lot of fluids and two different antibiotics to get things under control. It turns out that the abdominal pain was due to a flare up of diverticulitis, which we caught early before it escalated into an abscess. I am so thankful for this timing because it is very hard for me to see my mom in distress and given how much pain she was in, I can't even imagine how much worse it could have been if we hadn't caught it early.

As for more good news, she is NO LONGER ON THE WOUND VAC!!! Can you believe it?!? They took it off on Saturday!!! When they first put her on the wound vac on July 9, they told us she could be on it for three months, six months, or even possibly a year, depending on how the wound healed. Not even four weeks later, it was removed! She is amazing!

Her wound is not completely healed – that will still take time and patience – but it is healed enough that it doesn't require the wound vac. I was tasked with changing the dressing under the supervision of the nurse last night so that I will be able to do it at home in between the visits of the home health nurses, so I'm growing my skill set as a substitute medical tech.

Right now, we are just waiting for all of the discharge paperwork to be processed and then we'll be on our way! I am so grateful for the care my mom received once again and I hope this will be the last bump in the road to recovery for her! We've still got a long way to go, but we will get there!

Thank you for your well wishes and kind messages! She and I are very lucky to have such an excellent support system!

Tired, but happy!

Happy Tails to you!