I'm not a nurse, but I play one on TV

They said I missed my calling. HA.

Sunday afternoon, after receiving a rather distressed phone call from Grandma, I loaded my gear in our van and headed out for the UW hospital.  Grandpa was having a tough time, Grandma was tending to him by herself, and it became very clear that I needed to go there for her. I threw a bunch of clothes in a bag, arranged for Liz to watch Jacob on Monday, packaged up my half-cooked pot of spaghetti and meatballs and headed out the door.  We were pretty sure Grandpa would be heading home on Monday, so our plan was for me was to transport Gramps & Gramms home from the hospital and have Ben bring Jake to me Monday night to stay for care taking. I made it to Madison with no problems, and Grandma and Grandpa were really happy to see me, and vice versa.

Sunday night Grandma and I headed to baby Emma's for the night, which was really great. They were grateful for the company, since their original plan of having Grandma on hand for a week to help with baby, didn't really work out. Since Emma's mommy is nursing, there wasn't a lot I could do to help feeding, but I did get up in the middle of the night with them to keep them company and chat while the baby fed.  I know it sounds whacked, but it was fun.  I even changed a couple of pee-wee sized diapers.  Man, I forgot how TINY those things are! I also found a home for the food I had made, and I really enjoyed the reports of Ryan stuffing himself with it to near sickness.  :-)

Monday did not start off good.  I had a text message waiting for me announcing SCHOOL CLOSED.  Oh man.  Ben really needed to get to work.  Normally, it wouldn't be a big deal, as he could work from home - but of course - that day was CRITICAL he be at the office. THANK YOU LIZ FOR TAKING THE KIDS!!!!  (I could write another entertaining story based on the babysitting reports I got! :)  

Meanwhile, Grandma and I headed back to the hospital and were happy and surprised to learn Grandpa was indeed getting released today! Woo Hoo! Grandpa was very reluctant and a bit scared to leave the hospital and head for home. I can understand that it would be unnerving to leave the safety of the hospital and head out with amateur care takers!  I kept telling him we were gonna be FINE, we can do this! I took a course in Neckbrace Care 101 from the nurse, schooled myself on his meds schedule and got splint and exercise instructions from the occupational therapist. OK! Now to transfer these injured patients home, on the same road as the accident, at night, on snowy roads... (was colonel mustard in the trunk?)

With slow and careful driving, we got home fine.  One of Grandma's friends was waiting for us upon our arrival with dinner ready - how nice! We got Grandpa situated in a nice stiff-backed recliner and I set to making sense of and prepping his meds regimen.  OK! I was on top of making him walk, do his exercises, wear his splint and take his meds.  Grandma got bathroom duty. We made a good team! Now if I could only get Grandma to sit still and relax for ten minutes, I'd be making progress..... 

I was happy to see additional help, in the form of Grandma's sister, arrive Monday afternoon. I took the opportunity to go get them some groceries and complete their Christmas shopping.  It was pretty fun shopping with someone else's money! (Any other takers???) I returned about three hours later with my haul, chatted a bit and hit the hay, since my 6:00 am drive home would be fast approaching. When I headed out the next morning, I could already tell a significant improvement in the condition of BOTH of them. Home really is a healer! And I think Grandpa was a little sad to see his "Nurse Ratched" go home.

I'LL BE BACK.