Welcome to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life? That you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulthood. By doing so, with human family. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. Today I'm gonna update you on our hospital visit, my husband's hospital stay, which ended yesterday. It was day 12, which, if you listened to last week's episode, you know uh it started off in the ER, 26 hours, in fact, in the ER. And yes, it finally ended. At some point, I really doubted that it would ever end, but it did actually did actually end. He did come home last night, and they had talked to us about, you know, do you want to um go to a skilled nursing facility, which in my mind is quote unquote a rest home. That's what we used to call it when I was growing up, or a convalescent hospital, but now they call it a skilled nursing facility, which I have issues with that name, but I think they're trying to put a nicer package on it, uh, make it a nicer package. Anyway, we talked about that. Um, my experience with skilled nursing, quote unquote skilled nursing, is um or was with my dad, who uh had fallen and and kind of messed up his knee when he was oh gosh, it was probably two years before he died, maybe three years. He was he was doing pretty well, and then uh he fell and messed up his knee. And so they put him in, he was in the hospital, then he was in the hospital's rehab unit, and then they wanted to put him in skilled nursing because they didn't think he could manage at home, even though we had a caregiver uh at home. So we went to uh again, quote unquote skilled nursing, because they said that he could get more PT, but the PT, the quality of the PT, the physical therapy, was not that good. It was very minimal, and it really it really wasn't enhancing his recovery. So I took him out of that place and I had to sign something that said it was against medical advice. And it was really, you'd think that I was trying to kidnap him or something. So I didn't want to go through that again. It was a mutual decision between my husband and myself. Uh, it was really, I really left it more to him. If he had wanted to go, I would have supported it. But of course, he did not want to go be somewhere else for another two or three weeks. He was tired of being not his own bed, not his own environment. He really missed uh our pets, the cat and the dog. I would send him pictures of them here at home, and he would, you know, he'd say, Oh, I started crying because he really missed there our kids, right? So I know that was really hard on him. And he also wasn't sleeping very well, and it was a cumulative effect, so that after a week he'd sleep throughout the day, but in little spurts, and I would go to visit him, and he would be asking me, How's this, how's that going? And I'd be answering him, and I'd look at him, and he would have nodded off and actually started snoring while I was still talking and the TV was blaring. So I knew he was really exhausted and he really needed to sleep. And sometimes when you're healing, well, I mean, all the time, when you're sleep, when you're healing, you need to sleep. And in a skilled nursing facility, I'm not sure that that's the case. I don't think that that's a prime sleeping setup either. So he's home. We uh enlisted this the uh assistance of one of our neighbors who helped make sure that he got inside safely. And because falling is not an option anymore, I told him on the way home if he falls, I'm gonna kick his ass. Um because he can't, he just can't fall anymore. So, but he did make it in on his own. He walked from the car to the bed, which was probab it's probably I'm guessing that's 30 steps, and that's the longest he's walked in four weeks, probably. So I think he did really well. So he had a nerve block in his back, and I I I'm not sure of the actual specifications because I didn't get to talk to the doctor about it myself, but I think they numb it with something and then they put steroids in it as well. So it provides longer-term relief. So he was able to sit in the car comfortably, which he, you know, beforehand, if you heard my um discussion about the ER, you know, going into the ER, he was not able to sit for even a minute comfortably, and he's able to stand, and he just needs to um he needs to regain his strength. Right. So anyway, that's that's where we're at. Um I I think having having supportive people around you, having uh, you know, people that can help you, like our neighbors, they have been taking our dog every day for a walk because I don't have the bandwidth really to spend that much time with her. And our dog is kind of high energy. She needs to have an outlet for her energy, and I just don't have again, I don't have the bandwidth for that. So they've been then they have their own dog. So they've been taking her along with them every day, and that's been a great help for us, so she's a little calmer. I know that she's really missed human interaction because I've had to leave and go to the hospital every day, nearly every day. I think I missed uh one day. Um so she's missed that interaction because somebody's usually home, you know, all the time with them. And our cat also, I think, I think in the beginning of the 12 days, I think they were both confused about, you know, where's dad and what's going on, and gee, this sucks. We just have you to deal with. And then I think the second half of the 12 days, I think, especially the cat started to get kind of depressed because I think they both started to see this as the new normal, and they probably didn't think daddy was coming home. They didn't really know where he was, but they probably didn't think he was coming home again. So they just I saw a difference, especially in the cat. Um, and I was very careful to play with him every day and make sure that he had, you know, interaction as well. Um, because he's pretty stoic, but I wanted to make sure he was okay. Now LA got hit with rain, and we don't usually get hit with rain. This is, you know, the what do they call it? The atmospheric river, which means, you know, aka a lot of rain. And everybody's kind of nervous about the burn scar areas where the fires were. Um, but we did get a lot of rain. Not as much consistently as I thought we'd get, but there's been some periods of time when I was like, wow, is it wow, that's really heavy. So everything's really soaked. I think it'll be good because things will be, you know, they'll get green, but um, everything's pretty, pretty, pretty sloshy out there, pretty muddy. And I know there's been some damage uh with trees and whatnot. Not that I've seen, but on the news, whatnot. So anyway, I am very grateful that my husband's home. I'm also very grateful that I don't have to make that long drive to the hospital every day. I was that is really exhausting in LA traffic, 14, 15 miles one way is really a long way to go. Then you have to park, then you have to go through security, and then you have to get your badge. And um, you know, it's a lot. And there's a lot of walking because he was down at the end of a long hallway. He wasn't, I mean, it was a good thing he wasn't close to an elevator or something, but there's a lot of physical activity. Then you have to, okay, I'm going, gotta walk out to the car. Um, you know, is it's a lot of physicality and emotionally, you know, is very concerned and worried, and um that really took it out of me. So, and just keeping track of everything here at the house, which I will continue to do until he really gets back on his feet. But um, looking forward to that, and hopefully the nerve block lasts for a while um before he has to have something else done. But um, anyway, so that's where I'm at. I'm gonna go rest now, and uh next week we'll tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me. If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries Podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on. And consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page, only child diaries, or Facebook, Only Channel Diaries Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace, and these are the Only Channel Diaries.