"Just Click Your Heels Three Times, Close Your Eyes and say, There's No Place Like Home..."

We have clicked our heels and at last.. we are home! Home as in our beds, our favorite pillow, and most importantly Dad's favorite recliner! After hearing she was being discharged to the hotel, Mom had a surprise visit from her surgeon and cardiologist. Dr. Smedira didn't come by to look at her incision or anything of that nature, it was just to chat, see if she or dad had any questions, and..  ready for this?.. Give Her A Hug! Ok, I know that I keep saying this but I am an official Cleveland Clinic fan! Discharge was very streamlined and didn't take long and that was that. Well, not exactly. You knew it wasn't that easy didn't you? Before discharge one of her favorite nurses came by to remove her four sutures and take out her IV. Yes, I said four sutures, and they were from a port not the surgery. All of the surgical sutures were performed as if it were plastic surgery. Why, she'll be back in bikinis and plunging necklines in no time ☺. We are still having to watch one tiny place on her incision line, but everything else looks great. At Cleveland Clinic they are anti-sticking; which is to say that they keep a port and iv in for blood gases, draws, medications, etc. The bruising from her many arterial lines and heart lung procedure and are almost gone and with compliments to her oh-so-fabulous gel bed not even one tiny red spot on her even after being in bed so long. Back to our little challenge. For those of you that are dealing with home oxygen, my hat is off to you. For those that haven't maybe you will learn a bit here as we did. Our case worker helped us set up accounts in Cleveland and Memphis for Mom's oxygen generator at the hotel and at home before she could leave the hospital. We had the delivery of the portable tank to the hospital to get her to the hotel, once in the hotel she changed over to the generator. The oxygen generator is much like it sounds. It takes room air which contains approximately 24% oxygen, cleans it and compresses it to be delivered at the rate the patient needs. For the flight home, we had to order a special travel oxygen generator with battery packs. Obviously, you cannot travel with a large cylinder of oxygen onto an aircraft as that would be really dangerous especially if you hit turbulence! So we have the 'Oxygen To Go' delivered to the hotel as well. But wait, it's coming up on a weekend and they need 48 hrs (excluding weekends to deliver). Decision time, wait on the delivery or pay extra for Saturday delivery on a 45 lb shipment.. hmmm...? Out comes the American Express card again. "We'll just have to pay them $10 a month!" Remember the part about Medicare NOT paying for the oxygen to fly home? We found out that they would pay for portable oxygen tanks if we were driving home. Sure, 800+ miles, rent a car,stop for tank refills along the way as they only last 4 hours each. Add Another hotel night too. It would probably take two days to drive and Mom being uncomfortable riding in a car with her sternum wired back into place. Yes, the health care system is broken. It is in dire need of repair, but in my opinion if this is how the government run Medicare works..well, I know we can do better than this! At any rate we arranged oxygen for all three locations and made arrangements to fly home. More on that adventure tomorrow...Almost forgot. Mom is doing really well considering the complexity of her surgery. She is really tired, really sore and has a pretty major bone to heal back up but she is on the road to recovery. For now, no visitors just yet. Dad is fielding phone calls and I will keep you posted here. Your continued prayers are appreciated. 
Cheryl