So, of course, it would be too much to ask to have the hospital get things organized enough to ensure that Steve could go home on Monday. After surgery on Friday and having to spend the weekend, unfortunately at 2PM they still hadn't even started the process with the home wound care people. No biggie, what's another night in the hospital, right? So annoying.
By Tuesday early evening Steve was finally released from the hospital, wound vacuum and all.
What's a wound vacuum? I'm glad you asked. A wound vacuum is basically a vacuum-assisted closure of a wound. The purpose is to help the wound heal and decrease the chances of infection. While turned on (which should be 24-7) the device decreases air pressure on the wound. This is supposed to help the wound heal more quickly.
The home care service is set to come in three times per week to change out the wound vac dressing. In addition, Steve will have to go to the hospital once a week (at first), then once every two weeks in the new year to have the wound care specialists look at, evaluate and asses the progress.
We were told that Steve would have the wound vac for three weeks. Three weeks quickly turned to four weeks, then four weeks turn to six. Basically the Prednisone that was originally prescribed and being taken for his kidneys (Minimal Change Disease) is causing slow healing. But, at least he IS healing.
Something that I haven't mentioned through all this is Steve's job. He was working at Sports Authority (a sporting good store) and while he was in the hospital they filed bankruptcy. He officially "lost his job" on 12/30/16 and lost insurance as of 12/31/16. Thankfully, Sports Authority was kind enough to get him on sort-term disability that started at the end of September when this all started. Plus while Steve was in the hospital, one of the times, I filled out all the paperwork to apply for VA coverage and, with a sigh of relief, he's now hooked into the VA system. However, that means that he's no longer able to see the docs that he was used to seeing at the civilian hospital and has been transferred to the wound care team at the VA.
Steve has a long road ahead so hopefully he'll get this wound vac off sooner rather than later cause boy does it suck! Hahaha! Sorry, could help myself.