New Year's Day

Our trip home on New Year's Day began with a visit from the resident physician over the pediatric floor at 7:15 am. Since Jereth has the rotavirus we were told to expect fever and diarrhea for a few more days with a need for Tylenol and Pedialite for rehydration. The doctor asked how comfortable I would be taking him home with those additional needs. Of course I told her we were ready to go.

The final discharge approval came after 8:00 am from the lead physician, after another discussion about taking care of Jereth on the way home and once we get home. Then we had to finish the preaparations to leave. The pharmacy got his medications prepared while the nurses and I got Jereth's stuff gathered and got him hooked up to the air tank, the oxygen monitor, and the feeding pump.

The bus from Salt Lake Express was supposed to arrive at 9:15 am. The bus driver had never been to Primary Children's hospital and had a difficult time finding us, so I waited in the lobby with Dr. Elizabeth Kaza, the nurse, Megan, and two nurse techs helping keep Jereth happy. Once the bus got to the hospital he went to the opposite end of the building, so we had to take everything through the hospital to the bus.

It took four of us to get our luggage and medical paraphenalia into the bus. We laid the big air tank across the three back seats and kept from rolling by my suitcase. Jereth and I took the two seats in the next row. We left the hospital 45 minutes later than planned and were late to all stops through to Pocatello.

At Pocatello we had to transfer to a van even though we had been told we would not be changing vehicles. Thanks to several of the other passengers we were able to get everything transferred before too long. Because of the number of passengers heading west only passengers heading to Boise were in the van with us. Another van held the passengers heading to Twin Falls and Jerome so we only stopped outside of Twin Falls and made it to the Boise airport on time.

Roy met us at the airport, but he was late leaving the house and I had a nice visit with the van driver while we waited. We made it home around 6:30 pm, got Jereth hooked up to the medical equipment, and were able to relax and enjoy being home.