It was finally over. I was going to get to go home. I thought, everything would be back to normal. I would still be on dialysis 3 times a week in my home town but at least I would be back with my baby girl. She came to visit me twice in the hospital but unfortunately those two times I was really sick and don't remember her being there. Other family members visited too and so did my wonderful boss, Lori. I do remember Lori's visit and I remember my brothers visit. I remember my brother, Matt, telling me, " if you need a kidney, you can have one of mine." I thought to myself, "it wont come to that, mine are going to wake up." But I was deeply appreciative to him for his offer. Actually everyone in my family was willing to get tested if I needed a transplant!!!!
So after about a month of near death, I was well enough to be discharged! I was still sick but I was going home. Or not so fast it would turn out. You see, northeast Arkansas had just been hit with an ice storm!!! No electricity! We had no place to go. Nobody in our family had electricity back home. So we had to stay at the Barnes Jewish hotel for a night or two, I can't remember how long we were at the hotel before we could make the 4 hour trip home.
I remember a nurse wheeling me out to the car. As we started getting closer to outside the walls of the hospital, I started crying. The nurse said, 'baby, this is a happy day, you are going home." And they were tears of joy but also scared too. As long as I was at Barnes I knew they could take care of me. But home was a different story. What if HUS came back? I remember getting in the car with Chris and crying hysterically. He asked what he needed to do, what is wrong, and I said, "just take me home." I think deep down I was amazed that I actually made it. That I actually lived through it.
The ride back to Arkansas was miserable. I puked most of the way home. Chris looked really depressed. He knew the journey was only really beginning. We got all 20 prescriptions filled before leaving STL because we were about to head home to where an ice storm had just come through. This made an already scary situation even trickier!
Linda Burke left a comment for Jeff Wilhelm
6 years ago
Don't forget about when we picked up our Rx at Target. cz
ReplyDeleteThat was funny...looking back now! We thought we would get all 20 something of my meds filled in STL before we headed home to the ice storm. Chris "ran" into Target to get them filled. I sat out in the car for the first hour....puking. He kept running back and forth between me and Target. He would check on me and my puking and at one point he ran in and bought a toothbrush and toothpaste for me. The second hour of waiting on the meds, I decided to go in. It took about 10 minutes for me to get to the door of Target and I decided I needed one of those motorized scooters. Chris walked a few steps behind me!! Anyway, we FINALLY got the meds and 2 hours later would be on our way home.
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