Day 64, AYAT - I remember Dr. J coming to my room and explaining that this kind of surgery could be done at bedside which meant that they would remove the wound VAC in my room. I was scared of the pain and urged him to do it in a surgical suite while under anesthesia, he agreed but because there were no availability, they gave me the option to either have the procedure done bedside that day, which meant that I could go home that day or wait until the weekend when there was some availability. The thought of going home was overwhelming so I agreed to the bedside Removal of the Wound VAC. I was awake during the entire time and was able to converse with everyone. I didn’t feel any pain. They were very good at managing everything and then it was over. I was closed up and I was resting. I didn’t go home this day. But I was so close to going from an inpatient to an outpatient status. Earlier that morning I had given OT and PT a run for their money as they were requesting that I perform for them so they could release me from their care. They wanted me to walk up some stairs to make sure that when I went to my mothers home, I would be safe, I remember being very grumpy as I still had tubes coming out from a lot of different places and everything hurt to move, but they also dangled the car in front of me and sad if I showed them that I was able to go up the stairs that I was one step closer to going home and they would leave me alone. That was what I wanted to just be left alone be in charge of my own care. I looked him straight in the eye and said if I do this for you, you will leave me alone? They both said yes and we went. I showed them that I could get out of bed. I even walked all the way from my room to where the steps were, which was definitely more than 100 feet and at the time that was a lot of work, but I did it , I got up those four stairs and I got to the top. I then said did I do it can we be done now? They both with smiles on their face said yes, we are done.
Day 64, AYAT … continued. Once they both smiled and said yes, we were finished. I slowly hobble down the stairs to my wheelchair and ask them to wheel me back since I was really tired. They were more than happy to oblige. I know I gave them a hard time and later I went back and hugged them both for all of their hard work and apologized for my attitude. They were very gracious about it and it meant a lot to me that they were there for me these professionals give so much of themselves And until you were in those situations, it’s really hard to see it. As hard as all of this was, I am so thankful I was surrounded by the team that was there.
Today: I’m finally home in Colorado after almost 2 weeks of traveling I’m exhausted and I’m so happy to be with my dear husband and babies. I slept off and on and started to prepare for a very special meeting coming up this week. I’m also hopefully giving my gift to Dr. Wonderful as long as we can make the times work still. It’s been a great two weeks and I am really happy that I got to do all of that. The conference was amazing and spending time with my mom was memorable something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. My cup runneth over!
