Progress!!

Quick update. Chris got the go ahead to come back to the apartment and we made it back around 8 pm tonight. She still had a rough day with some nausea and no appetite at all. She tried to eat a dinner they served late this afternoon and she ate about half of it only to lose it 30 minutes later. Luckily this was after the discharge instructions had been given and we got out of there as quickly as possible before they knew what happened. The head of the medical team met with us today (as she does daily) but this morning she had 6 medical students in tow. As this is a teaching hospital, you see a slew of medical students all over the place. It actually is exciting as there is a ton of energy. These medical students just listen and learn from the experienced medical team and you can see that they are soaking it all up. That said, it must have been a bit disconcerting to Chris to have seven people examine her. I do not exaggerate when I see she had 4 stethoscopes on her back at the same time. It is very important that as many medical students as possible are exposed to this disease. It is so badly diagnosed with so many doctors missing it that we want as many medical students as possible to learn the symptoms.

I also met with the head of the nursing department today. As Chris has now spent a total of 10 nights in the hospital over the last 2 weeks, it was important to me that I tell the department head what I thought of the care. Within our family (and I hate to admit this), we have had 6 significant surgeries in the last 2 years. In all of those, I have never seen a nursing staff as good as this one. These people were so passionate about their patients, they had so much empathy for the misery Chris was going through, and they were very very patient with me (that alone is worth acknowledging). We had three nurses over the various shifts (they work 12 hours shifts over a 3 or 4 day period) and they are all good friends. They would call each other when they were home to ask their colleagues how Chris was doing. I wish everyone could experience the care these nurses provided -just incredible.
Of course I also took the opportunity to propose new processes that I thought could be reengineered within the hospital, but I'll leave that to another day.

Chris is very happy to be back in the apartment. I can't describe how strong she has been. Imagine days and days of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, complete exhaustion, and not being home. Most of us would complain at some point, but Chris is so internally committed to beat this thing that she refuses to let it get her down. She is my hero.

So tonight we have no bells and buzzers, no vital signs every 4 hours, and no injections. Of course we are back there early tomorrow morning. But that is fine as she is making progress.

By the way, the haircut she got two weeks ago was not short enough. Hair is flying everywhere, so tomorrow she gets the buzz cut (another new talent I will learn).