Chapter 46

Sue's Story

It was Tuesday, around five in the afternoon. When Jeff had first said there was no reason both kids couldn't recuperate at home, I'd been thrilled. Somehow I'd gotten the idea that they wouldn't be as sick or as helpless if they were home in their own beds, instead of the sterile hospital room.

Les had been released Saturday afternoon. Maybe relocated is a better word. She was brought from the hospital to our house in an ambulance. They carried her upstairs in a stretcher and transferred her to the bed. She was in very good shape considering she'd had a kidney removed three days before. She was able to eat real food. Nothing solid, soups and jello and such, but she had quite an appetite. She was able to lie on her back but chose to keep a pillow under the side of the removed kidney to keep it off the bed.

When I'd arrived at the hospital late Thursday afternoon, Les was calling out my name. I rushed over to the bed and held her hand. She smiled and then looked at her brother, lying in the bed across from her with his back to her. "Is Wes OK?"

"He's fine, Honey. Your kidney's in him and he's busy healing himself."

"OK, Mom. So tired."

She sighed and closed her eyes.

Sam had left the room as soon as I came in and she heard Les. She came back in with Jeff.

Jeff looked at me. "False alarm?"

"No, she woke up and asked about her brother. I told her he had her kidney and was healing. She told me she was tired and just went back to sleep."

He opened an eyelid, then listened to her back with his stethoscope. "She'll be fine. Let the nurse know if she wakes up again."

Les must have been really tired. She didn't stir until after eight on Friday morning. When she woke it was if there was nothing wrong with her. She was a little sore but mostly hungry and curious about what she'd missed. She had to take it easy with the food for a couple of meals but was enjoying a full bowl of soup, tea and jello for desert at dinner time. She was actually taking her first tentative steps after dinner, with me and Sam on either side of her.

She decided that having a catheter and a bag was "gross." She wanted it taken out and Dr Bradley went along with her. When the time came, she didn't want to use the bed pan. Sam and I had to help her into the toilet. Poor baby. She screamed the first time.

Dr Bradley gave her the option of putting up with the pain for a few more times or putting the catheter back in. She chose the pain.

Sam and I did our best to fill her in on what was going on. Sam told her how I was throwing Jim out and coming on to Jeff. I wish she'd kept her mouth shut about that for a while, but it's too late now. So then I had to tell her everything, including how Jeff had backed off from getting close to me until I was totally free of Jim. And even then there wasn't any guaranty.

She seemed genuinely happy to meet Bill when Darcy brought him in Saturday afternoon. He thanked her for all she did and kissed her on the cheek. When Joey came in with Vicky hanging all over him she didn't know what to say. She was thrilled for the two of them but the speed with which they'd latched onto each other amazed her.

Jeff came into the room about 8 PM Thursday and asked me if he could buy me a cup of coffee. My heart sped up as I agreed to go down to the cafeteria with him.

He told me that it looked good for Les to come home over the weekend. Wes would probably come home early in the week but they'd have to keep an eye on him the next few days. Then he told me about the meeting he had with Nancy, the candy striper that afternoon.

Nancy was a lot more intelligent than anyone gave her credit for. Her genuine desire to help people was looked at as a weakness or a sign that she was mentally deficient in some way by some of the staff. He'd been pretty sure she was a lot more than a dumb high school girl.

He asked her what her assessment of the hospital was and how she thought the candy stripers could fit into it and she laid out a whole plan.

Her main concern with the hospital was that they had all these volunteers, anxious to help out any way they could and they were using overworked nurses to do things the candy stripers were perfectly capable of.

Things like bathing the patients, emptying bedpans, changing bed linens and soiled hospital gowns. All these menial jobs could be done by one or two candy stripers, leaving the nurses free for other tasks. She even said they could change IV bottles once the IV had been inserted. Pushing wheelchairs was fine but they were capable of a lot more.

My kids seemed to be Jeff's guinea pigs. He'd done multiple operations on Wes. This was unheard of away from the battlefield where they didn't have the luxury of operating on a patient, then letting him recover before a second operation. Now he was going to ship both of them home days or even weeks earlier than was standard.

And he was proposing something else. He wanted to send Nancy over to the house to help out. A couple of hours at a time, 2 or 3 times a day. He would train her on changing dressings and what to look for, and changing IV bottles. She would also do the other things they'd discussed. He would still visit the kids but she would be his eyes and ears and alert him to anything that didn't look right.

An advantage to me was that there wouldn't be any charge for Nancy's services. A nurse could cost over $100 a day, not all of it covered by insurance. I asked Jeff about his time and he laughed. "They'll be so glad I'm not looking over their shoulders they'll want to pay you for me to stop by a couple of times a day."

Three days Les had been home. And I was exhausted. Nancy was a big help. I never would have made it without her. She came over Saturday and Sunday, just like they were regular days. I asked her when she was going to take a day off. Her answer was "She needs me."