Home, Sweet, Home (but not without chaos first)

Let's start with Monday. I met with the case manager and therapist first. We ordered the hadicapped items needed to bring Daniel home. That afternoon, we decided to take it somewhat easy. I went pick up supper around 6:oo so we could watch some of the new episodes on TV that night. When I came back, one of the nurses stopped me to talk about going home. When I walked back in the room, the tech was taking his pressure and pulse. This is when everything started going crazy again.

Daniel's pulse was racing at 178 beats per minute. The is equivilant to someone running a marathon. Since he was in bed not moving, his heart rate should have been 60 -80 beats per minute. After an EKG, the doctors decided to admit him back into the hospital
(rehab is a different admit, so he had to be discharged from rehab and admitted into the regular hosiptal). By the time they moving him down - this al took place in about 10 minutes - his heart rate had already dropped. The main reason for the move was that the medicine that they would have to give him to lower his heart rate must be given in ICU. We definitely did not want to go back there.

Daniel, of course, was very stressed. After a night in the step down unit, 3 EKGs, 2 rounds of blood tests, and an echo cardiogram, Daniel was diagnosed with SVT. This has to do with the electrical signal of the heart that causes rapid heart beat. This last only a few minutes for Daniel. It is a non-life threatening condition that we would have never known about if it were not for the tech coming in a the right (or according to Daniel, the wrong) time.

So, now on to Tuesday. After running the remainder of the tests ordered, we were seen by all doctors and discharged about 1:00. It is so nice to be home. There are definite challenges being home, but the idea of being home overcomes those challenges. We are racking up on doctor appointments already. Home health is supposed to meet with us today to schedule therapy for the upcoming week(s). We will then be going to out-patient rehab.

Here are some pictures of the last few days in the hospital. If it were not for the arm and leg, you may not even know he was in such a bad accident.

(OK, for those of you who have just beung reading this blog, it is so hard to get each individually with cute smiles. Aiden got the cute smile award today, but other days, I do put more pictures of the others rather than Aiden, depending on who is camera shy that day.)

The newly installed ramp in front the house: