Sir Otis: Home (Or: Post-op, Day...Wait, what day is this?)

After an entire day of hurry-up-and-wait, Otis was finally discharged from the hospital at around 5:00 p.m. on Friday. We fought the holiday time Friday evening traffic to get across town to a pharmacy that carried the medications Otis would need to keep his pain, muscle spasms, and seizures under control in these still-early days of his healing, and then arrived at home, where we unpacked and began the tedious process of figuring out our new schedule and routines. Since Otis is limited to thirty degrees of flexion, he is unable to sit up to eat and drink in a safe position, so he will get all of his water and nutrition via his g-tube until he is cleared to sit up again at ninety degrees. Another reason we have decided to do this is because the Valium that has been added for muscle spasm and additional seizure control is sedating enough to affect his ability to swallow and safely clear anything taken by mouth, so it's just precautionary. We can't risk him aspirating and getting pneumonia on top of everything else we're putting him through right now!

We are now on our third full day at home, and Otis is continuing to do WAY better than we had expected. Aside from being somewhat mellowed out from the Diazepam (Valium), Otis is pretty much his happy, smiley self. He is on a pretty tight medication schedule, getting either Tylenol, Ibuprofen, or Diazepam every two hours around the clock, along with having to be shifted and propped up from one side to his back to his other side every two hours to prevent pressure sores. We're using throw pillows for the propping right now, but are hoping to receive some wedges like the ones they used in the hospital. Seizures have so far been well controlled--just mild ones so far, and none of the bigger ones that would cause all of his muscles to seize into forceful flexion. His surgeon is confident that the hardware in his hips can withstand such a forceful event, so the concern would be pain and potential fractures further down his legs as they force against the immobilizers. I don't think Ryan and I will stop holding our breath about that until he is cleared to remove the immobilizers and start moving freely, now five to seven weeks from now.

In the meantime, we are still just trying to find our way into routines that accommodate the necessary 24/7 hands-on caregiving while also taking turns to rest and get some sleep. It's been tricky so far, as we currently have private duty nursing from our home health agency three nights per week, although we just received news that there is a nurse that is looking to pick up another shift...fingers crossed! On the nights we don't have a nurse, Ryan and I take turns being "on duty" in O's room, administering his meds every two hours, and waking up the other to assist with rotating and hygiene/changes. I joked with our Saturday night nurse that he's probably going to see us age quite a bit over the next several weeks! We'll get through it, though. It's pretty intense, but Otis continues to remind us that if he can do this (with a smile, no less), then so can we.