In Which Jer Has New Digs

So Jeremy is now ensconced up at the new hospital. I have to get used to being in a civilian hospital again. Military hospitals, at least on the floors we're usually on (which do not include the psych or labor and delivery floors) tend to be fairly quiet and orderly as far as hospitals go. This new hospital's chief amenities so far include the standard screaming irate woman one door down (You TOLD ME I CAN'T go off the FLOOR because I don't want to TAKE my MEDICATION! I want to go OUTSIDE! I feel VIOLATED! You are VIOLATING ME! I am SUING YOU, you VIOLATOR!), the roommate who watches eight hours of reality court TV shows with the volume turned all the way up, and also the false medical professional thieves (we were warned about these; apparently they come in pretending to be doctors, take your valuables for "safekeeping" and then abscond with them). And of course there are the twenty-dollar-a-day (I kid you not!) parking passes. Never fear dear readers; because Jer is staying a while (read: probably months) we were eligible for the discounted pass. This means we only pay thirteen dollars a day! What a deal!

On the other hand, this hospital does have top-of-the-line doctors; some of the best in the world for the type of injuries Jer has. The doctor who is in charge of his case focuses almost exclusively on calcaneal fractures, and has perform hundreds of surgeries. Which is, after all why we are at the hospital at the first place. And the nurses we've met so far have been very helpful and personable.

So if they are going to have some issues at this hospital, I'd much rather it be with things like doctor-impersonating thieves rather than the quality of the health care. Just so long as those guys leave the surgeries to the real doctors, that is. And the standard screaming lady is really more entertainment than anything else, so long as she conducts her ranting between the hours of nine in the morning to seven at night. I'm sure this will be no problem.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll be getting a better idea of what will be involved with Jer's surgery on Friday, and maybe also an idea of the overall game plan for future reconstruction. We'll just have to see! I'll be heading up there super early tomorrow (the doctors come for rounds at 5:30 in the morning) so I'm off to bed!

EDIT: I was brushing my teeth in preparation for bed when a solution to all of my parking woes hit me. I find some of my best ideas come while I'm brushing my teeth. Maybe clean teeth are little magnets for Epiphanies or something. Anyway, here's the plan.

Step One: Connor and my mother-in-law (who was sweet enough to come up and help out when my mom left) sleep at Fisher House in Seattle. It's a facility for visiting family members similar to the civilian Ronald McDonald Houses. I park the car at Fisher House and take the bus to the hospital. I sleep in the room with Jer.

Step Two: I wake up, hear rounds, and get ready for the day. My mother-in-law gets Connor up and prepares him for school.

Step Three: MIL puts Connor in the car and drives him to the hospital, where we do a switch. She stays at the hospital and I drive Connor down to school. Then we do our errands, therapy, library time, or anything else that needs to be taken care of back in the Puyallup area.

Step Four: Connor and I go back up to Seattle and do another switch with MIL, who takes Connor back to Fisher House with her for the rest of the day/night.

No parking fees! Brilliant!


~Jess