JOSH GOES HOME AFTER MORE THAN FIVE MONTHS IN HOSPITALS!!

Josh poses with Ed, one of his favorite nursing assistants as he is being wheeled through the garden and to the car.  Josh is through with sleeping  in this place.  He'll sleep in his own bed tonight after sleeping in hospital beds for more than five months!  How about that one?   We're not through with Sharp Rehab....we'll be back for outpatient therapies on Tuesday.

Josh poses with Joan, his nurse and nursing assistants as he is wheeled out of the hospital.  The gal with the light blue pants and black top is Elsie, the nurse we hired to take care of Josh at home.  She is darling.

Josh is so happy to be leaving the hospital and poses happily with Joan, his nurse.  All his stuff is packed up and ready to go.

 

HOME AT LAST!

On Saturday, September 1st at 11:00 a.m., we left the hospital and headed home with our new nurse, Elsie.  Josh immediately perked up as we got closer to our house.  He recognized all the freeway signs and was so happy to see the Del Mar Heights Road exit and the Via de la Valle exit.  He was talking non-stop...reading all the freeway signs outloud as we got closer and closer.  I said, "Hey Josh, which way do we go?"  He said, "Take a right on Via de la Valle."  I said, "Which way is that east or west?"  He says in a sarcastic tone, "East."  Josh knows where he lives.

We get home and get Josh up the stairs.  That was a bit of a struggle because his sense of space is still off and he doesn't always put his feet flat on the stairs... When he walked into the house, he says, "This looks just like our house."  I said, "Josh, look at the picture of us on the wall..."  He then says, "This IS our house."  He was laughing.  The dogs were barking and Josh was happy!! 

I had actually gone grocery shopping and stocked up the frig for the big event.  Josh hung out in the family room and watched ESPN and the Padres baseball channel all day.  He yelled out Ruffy and Daisy a thousand times... We sat at the kitchen table and had lunch and dinner.  Natalie was happy that the frig was finally well stocked.   She had her friends over and they made turkey sandwiches and ate watermelon.  

I had filled Josh's prescriptions on Friday night.  He is down to two medicines only -- an anti-seizure pill and Adavan.  He is supposed to take one of each every eight hours. I must say that Dr. Stenehjem did an excellent job in weaning Josh from the morphine and all of his other medicines.  Josh was on a laundry list of meds at one time.  Slowly and skillfully Dr. S weaned him from the opiates, the beta-blockers and the blood pressure medicines.  Thanks, Dr. S., you're the best!  You're fine-tuning Josh.

I decided to skip the mid-day dosage of Adavan the first day.  Then, it was 11:00 p.m. and Josh was wired.   We finished watching the USC football game and Josh was reading every score on the screen.  He said he wasn't tired and wanted to stay up.  Elsie and I were exhausted.  We finally got Josh in bed.  We all slept in his room the first night.   I bought a couple of air mattresses for convenience.  You can put them anywhere and they're pretty comfortable.  We made it through the first night.  Josh was unscathed!  He is still a fall risk and needs supervision 24/7... the joys of a brain injury.   As time goes on, he'll get steadier and stronger.  I just hope he stays as happy as he is.  He is so sweet and agreeable.  He's transformed!!!   I imagine as time goes on and he continues to wake up cognitively, he'll become frustrated, especially with the short term memory limitations.  You can only take one day at a time. 

I am happy to be home.  I am thrilled to have found Elsie.  She is efficient and kind -- extremely attentive.  I told her Josh is her only concern.  His safely and well-being come first.  I found Elsie through a service which was started by a gal who used to be the head rehab nurse at Sharp.  What more can I ask for! 

On Sunday, we went to hbot.  Josh was in a great mood.  Elsie, Josh and I went out for submarine sandwiches after hbot.  Josh always comes out of the chamber starving as it burns through your blood sugar quickly.  I notice that Josh is no longer acting wired and crazy after hbot.  He used to confabulate amazing stories about this and that - watching fights and insisting on going to supporting events.  Now, he gets out of the chamber and he's pretty cool...   I hope that continues.   

Tomorrow we start outpatient therapy at Sharp.  I think things are looking up!