Day 32, August 2

WAHOO!!  YIPPEE!!  YAHOO!!! :)  Jake has been discharged from the hospital!!!  We are so excited!!  Can't you tell??? :)

The doctor came in this morning and removed the staples and stitches from his right leg.  That was pretty interesting to see how they remove those staples.  He applied steri-strips to the scars to help keep them closed.  These strips will fall off by themselves in time.  They are waiting for another couple of weeks to remove the stitches from his left leg. 

After the doc was done, Jake was ready and rearin' to get out of there!  But, we had to wait a bit for the discharge papers to be filled out and all the orders written.  During that time, Matt came in one more time to work on Jake's legs.  At the same time, Jacqui (his OT therapist) was there.  It was so funny to watch the three of them tease each other and watch them laugh. :)  We are really going to miss the two of them.  We can still visit them when we go over to the hospital for appointments, but not seeing them everyday is a sad part of leaving the hospital.  I made sure that I got pictures of Jake with both of them. 

After Matt was done, we had to go down to the OT room with Jacqui.  Jake wanted to play against her at Wii bowling.  He kept boasting that he could beat her--and--at the beginning, it looked like he was going to.  But, Jacqui caught up and then beat him!  What a blow to his ego!! ;)  They both had a good time and laugh.  She then made him work on his upper body strength with weights.

We returned to his room to pack the rest of his belongings and waited for the orders to come through.  I guess the pharmacy orders were the only thing holding us up from leaving. :(  It took them almost 3 hours to get his meds up to us.  We left with a brown paper grocery bag full of his meds and with things for him to give himself shots with each day.  Thank goodness he only has to do the shots and a couple of the other meds for one more week.  You can't believe how many bottles we have here!  We are sooooo appreciative to the pharmacist that gave us daily pill holders (Sunday through Saturday) with different parts of the day--am, noon, evening, bedtime.  Each night we will fill the next day's pill holder.  This makes things so much easier for us! 

Waiting and waiting to finally get out of the hospital - Jake was going crazy!!  He was so bored and just wanted to leave.  Plus, the WTB (Warrior Transition Brigade) had to do the in-processing work on him as he moved to outpatient.  The WTB is who he is attached to down here until he is able to go back home and be with his own unit.  We were late getting discharged because of how long the pharmacy took to get us all of his meds.  We were unable to complete all the in-processing paperwork due to the lateness of the day so, we have more paperwork to do tomorrow with his Sergeant and with his Nurse Case Manager--along with some appointments.  His day tomorrow is already beginning with appointments. 

It was dinner time by the time we arrived at the Mologne House. We grabbed a quick dinner and headed up to our room.  Jake was beat.  He was frustrated and a bit sad tonight. :(  It's been hard maneuvering his wheelchair around certain things and he feels bad asking for help.  He wants so badly to be independent and it's very difficult for him right now to feel so dependent on others for simple things.  None of us really know what he is going through with not being able to walk, remembering the blast, feeling like he can't do things on his own, etc., etc.  All we can do is be strong for him, to be upbeat and positive, to remind him of the blessings he does have, and to keep on encouraging him and praying for him. 

It's been a very tiring day and we are worn out, but we both are happy to be out of the hospital and on the road to recovery.  Each day has been and will continue to be an adventure--literally. Tomorrow the adventure begins as we try to find all the places he needs to be to make his appointments.  We are going to be strong and positive!! :)