Packing up and saying good bye

Tomorrow is the exciting day of getting released from the hospital. Today is the sad day to saying goodbye to the many members of the medical staff whom have taken care of Shirley over the last two months and have become our friends.  Although she has only been on the Rehab Unit for two weeks, the nursing staff here have more time to interact with patients and some very close bounds have been developed.  Below is a photo with Anisa, one of her favorite RNs on the floor. 

Today, Shirley got a pass to leave the hospital grounds.  We went over to Pete and Caroline's house to drop off some of her stuff and select some clothes for tomorrow's departure.  We had a nice, but brief visit and some refreshments on their front porch overlooking Lake Washington.

Tonight, Anisa taught me how to pack the wound on Shirley's sternum.  She observed me doing it once and pronounced me ready to take care of this at home. She packed a bag of supplies for me and I'm all set.

We also took delivery of a home-sized version of the wound vac that is about half the weight of the hospital version.  Tomorrow before we leave, they'll switch us over to it.

We also reached another blog milestone, with going over 20,000 page hits today.  We now have readers in 27 countries spanning all six populated continents!