Casa, sweet casa!

As I mentioned yesterday, Carol is doing well and we had great hope that she would be able to come home today. After taking her Xarelto pill this morning at 7AM sharp, things continued to go well. Her surgeon had talked about letting her go at 3PM if she wasn’t having any excess fluid drainage, but stopped by at about 11AM to check on her.

After the exam, she announced that Carol could leave right away! We know the hospital is overcrowded and that they have better uses for a bed than to have it occupied by someone who is doing well and doesn’t really have to stay, so we were glad to get out and give them the space.

I quickly motored to the hospital and found her in a wheel chair manned by one of the orderlies at the hospital. We got her loaded into our car and put on a special post-surgical pillow that is designed to protect the wearer from the seatbelt after surgery – a very nice gift from Carol’s sister.

The ride home wasn’t the most comfortable, but Carol was willing to stop for a chicken soft taco – a bit of comfort food for lunch.

Mmm, tacos are delicious…

After lunch she finished listening to the audible book she had been listening to in the hospital (The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie if I remember correctly) and then took a nap. While she has some prescription pain pills, she has so far managed to stick to just extra-strength Tylenol and is hoping that will be enough to do the trick.

We did have one little scare in the early evening when we noticed that her upper right arm was blue.

Note the blue coloring on Carol’s upper arm…

Concerned that it might be some sort of hemorrhage or a blood clot, we called the surgeon’s office. We got a call back from the on-call doctor and sent over the picture that you see here. It wasn’t hot or hard and so we were asked to see if it came off with an alcohol wipe. Sure enough – it did and was just some of the stuff they used to clean Carol off during her surgery. It sure did freak us out for a few minutes though!

We’re glad she’s home. The next few days are just meant to be relaxing here at home – I’ll keep on top of stripping and emptying the surgical drains and we’re hopeful they should be able to be removed at our appointment with the surgeon next week.