Elopement.....

 Babygirl was discharged Tuesday. Things continued to be stable, or gradually improving.  

The docs came in and told us this.  I told them, "I live three hours away and a friend is coming to pick us up. It will take them 3 hours to get here. Should I call them?"  "Sure."

Nearly 3 hours later my friend was about an hour away, and we'd seen no hint of discharge paperwork, IV removal, catheter supplies etc.  I asked for an update from the nurse, and she said that the discharge orders hadn't been placed yet.

I've waited a lot of hours in my life for discharge.  The record was 15 hours once at CHOP.  Last week here it was 7 hours. I've got somebody doing the MASSIVE favor of driving a total of 6 hours so we can get home. 

"We were told 3 hours.  So when my friend gets here, this is what is going to happen:  We are going to LEAVE.  With or without discharge papers. I know how to take an IV out myself, and I can get supplies from my own hospital if it comes to that."

Well.  That made her, verklempt.  She is the person who will take the heat if we elope, and it isn't her fault at all.  But DANG, this is our second hospital stay in less than a week and I am DONE.  She asked if we had been told a specific time for discharge, and I mentioned the 3 hour story as above.  "You really should have ASKED for a time."  "Your doctors should be able to effectively communicate a time."

She scurried.  She pushed cajoled, and bugged people. She made sure we had the supplies we need so that if we walked we wouldn't go unprepared. 

My friend arrived, and the nurse was still working on things, and said, "But it's dangerous to leave without instructions!"  Well, considering we got 12 pages of instructions literally read to us line by line only 3 days ago and nothing has changed except the catheter, I think we're covered. About 20 minutes later she got the paperwork, Babygirl signed it, and we asked for the wheelchair that we'd been using to Babygirl from point A-B.  "There's a meeting in that room.  We have to wait for transportation." 

The hell we do.  I asked Babygirl if she thought she could walk it.  She said yes.  I picked up all of our stuff and we walked out unnoticed. 

We made it to the discharge area, unnoticed.  And ran away to home.

A HUGE thanks for such excellent friends. 

DeeDee