Nothing is easy

Day 24: Here's Annie taking her first steps outside in over a month.  She was excited but it was a long day and it's not over yet.  They wanted to keep her on hydration at night so we have to set up the pumps at home.  However it's 10 PM and we have a nurse at our house trying to figure out how to set up some new type of IV pump that doesn't need a pole.  From the sound of things this will take a while as the nurse and Tom are reading the instruction manual to try and figure it out.

Anyways Annie's counts improved again except the hemoglobin which dropped to where she needed a transfusion today.  That extended everything by six hours.  As that was happening we had to finish packing the room and continue with her constant hydration, food, mouth care, medicine and physical therapy requirements.  Then, when reviewing all the medicines going home with us, I noticed they gave her the wrong form of her anti-nausea medicine.  It was the type that dissolves and that makes her throw up - she only likes the type you swallow.  This led to phone calls, having her try to swallow them anyways,  her spitting it up, more phone calls, visits to the pharmacy, calls to the insurance company....finally got what we needed and could head home.  Some friends gathered on the lawn to welcome her home but they had to deal with all the false starts so we were generous sharing our frustration.

Of course it's wonderful having Annie home but it's a little like bringing a baby home the first night.  You're exhausted and excited and then overwhelmed and up all night.  So on that note I'm off to help get the beeping machines set up!