August 14, 2024 - Discharge
I GET TO GO HOME!!!
I did not want to spend another night in the hospital!! I missed being home in Spokane with my doggies, I missed Tim, and I missed my bed! My hospital bed was so uncomfortable, it was consistently inflating and deflating, the buttons would only work at times, and I had to sleep in one position all the time because there wasn’t any room to spawl out. Not to mention the number of times the nurses wake you up throughout the night to get vitals and then put a roommate in the mix and you are woken twice as much.
Speaking of roommates, my 3rd roommate in a week was finally discharged today! The first roommate must of have lived in some sort of shelter because she didn’t have anything (not even a change of clothes), had no family to call and they wouldn’t discharge her without approval from the social worker. Even with social work approval, she fought with them daily on the phone trying to prove that she can properly care for herself upon discharge.
The second roommate had problems going to the bathroom, at all times of the day! The nursing staff was in the room every couple of hours attempting to get her to go. If she didn’t go, it was an hour-long fight trying to get her catharized. But if she did go, just hope you weren’t eating lunch! This 3rd, and hopefully last, roommate was just rude and disrespectful and her family that came to visit was too! They complained about everything, even the volume of my television! But then she would have me up ALL evening calling her daughter every two minutes and if she couldn’t get hold of her daughter, she was calling the nurse in. I was absolutely done with roommates, done with the hospital and just wanted to be home! I broke down in tears with the nurse on multiple occasions and honestly just wanted to get up and walk out of the hospital, this was just so so so hard!!
My transplant team finished all the testing required for transplant a few days ago and I was listed on the registry August 8, 2024. Since then, my condition had remained unstable most days but was finally stable enough to consider discharge. There were a lot of things to consider before they would allow me to go back to Spokane, however. I had to meet with all members of my team to ensure that I was able to maintain stability while at home awaiting a transplant. It required that my caretaker be available 24/7, I had stable food and shelter, I had reasonable access to the hospital for daily labs if necessary, that I would be able to administer any necessary medications and/or go to the hospital for them if needed, and that I would be able to get to Seattle within a 4-6 hour window if an organ should become available. Yes, yes, yes, to everything! At this point, I would do almost anything just to go home!
It was the same routine each day since I’ve been listed on the registry, labs really early in the morning, breakfast, do some puzzle books or watch Netflix, Lunch, afternoon nap, call my mom and Tim, Dinner, night time meds and sleep, all while each member of my transplant team completes their rounds and gives me a daily update. Today, my MD and Hepatologist both felt I was stable enough for discharge within the next day or two!
MELD 3.0: 30 (female), 29 (male) at 8/14/2024 4:49 AM
MELD-Na: 27 at 8/14/2024 4:49 AM
Calculated from:
Serum Creatinine: 1.40 mg/dL at 8/13/2024 10:55 AM
Serum Sodium: 136 mmol/L at 8/13/2024 10:55 AM
Total Bilirubin: 19.7 mg/dL at 8/13/2024 10:55 AM
Serum Albumin: 2.9 g/dL at 8/13/2024 10:55 AM
INR(ratio): 1.7 at 8/14/2024 4:49 AM
Vital Signs:
Temp: 36.9°C (98.4 °F) BP: 113/64 Pulse: 95 Resp: 16
SpO2: 96 % on 1 L/min room air
