South Bend, here we come!

It's official - we've got written pre-approval from the insurance company and the folks in the PICU at Memorial Hospital are expecting us: Tommy's headed back to South Bend tomorrow. If home weren't so far away from Riley, we'd certainly be open to the idea of staying here until Tommy's ready to go home. The move to South Bend, however, will likely make life substantially less complicated for all of us. We've made some fast friends here in Indy and hope to keep in touch with them - even if only through our blog.

Tommy's ride (the ambulance) is scheduled to arrive at Riley to pick him up at 10am. For the ride to South Bend, I'll follow behind in the van, like Tim did on the way here 34 days ago (yeah - that's right - THIRTY-FOUR days). We're not sure yet how long to expect Tom to be at Memorial - we'll figure that out once we get there.

We know we need to wean Tom down on his resp rate on the ventillator (he's at 30 now and should be in the mid-20's before he were to be discharged), but his other vent settings are all perfectly acceptable for home. The other requirement to consider before his discharge is our training - and training for the other folks that will be taking care of him regularly at home.

Well, I need to get all our stuff packed up tonight. Tomorrow morning will be a bit crazy before we leave at 10am. Breathing treatments, feedings, loading the car, etc. We'll let everyone know how things are in South Bend once we get settled in.

Love Kristin & Tommy