Almost done!

After he woke up, he had some of the funniest things to tell us. His version of what was going on was slightly different than reality! He kept us laughing all day. He thought he was at CTU (from the show 24), and he was very nosey about what was going on in the rest of ICU. He was very sensitive to sounds, and started mimicking all the other monitors from other people's rooms.

On Tuesday night, they moved him to a stepdown unit and he stayed there for 3 nights. These were very hard. I couldnt stay with him, the nurses weren't as responsive, and he had horrible dreams/hallucinations the whole time he was here. The nurse had to call me several nights at 2 am to come calm him down. It was very scary, and I knew he thought what he was saying was really happening. They said it was just from all the medicine he had while he was on the ventilator. The dr had given him the ok to come home, but physical therapy recommended inpatient rehab. I started working on getting him placed there on Wednesday. On Thursday, my grandparents came and sat up there all day so they could be there for visitation times. I went home to see my babies and was back for the 5 visitation. They told me he would be on a regular floor by 2, so we took the kids up there to visit. He was still on stepdown, so my parents took us to eat and we came back at 7 when they told us too.  Finally, at 8:30 he was on a regular floor!This meant Kate and Preston could come visit, and I could stay in the room with him! Yay! He continued to work with PT, but was getting no IV meds or fluids and had his catheter out. He was starting to look like himself again, but his eyes weren't quite there yet. His voice was off and so were his mannerisms. It is hard to explain, but he just wasnt quite himself yet. We stayed there Thursday night, and by Friday afternoon he was discharged to inpatient rehab down the street. I packed up my life from the previous two weeks in the waiting room and followed the ambulance there. They got him all checked in and I had to come home. It was so hard leaving him...only the second since he had fallen asleep, but it was so nice to sleep in a bed! Those lovely chairs in the waiting room are about as comfy as you would imagine them to be.

The next morning, I got to rehab to visit, and Luke told me he could leave for the day. I did NOT believe him, and we headed off to find his nurse. I thought," Bless his heart! He is going to be so embarassed in front of the nurses." But he was right! We checked him out and my parents met me to help bring him to their house. My dad set up the wheelchair ramps and we were able to get him in the house and onto the couch. Larry and Nina  came to visit, and Uncle Bucky and Aunt Kelly showed up with milkshakes. I think Luke felt so much better being able to lay on a couch for a few hours! We loaded him back up and got him back to rehab for dinner. It took 28 minutes for Luke to get from sitting in my car to standing beside it. He was in alot of pain extremely weak. He stayed there for another week, and I just went back and forth to visit everyday. He was discharged on Friday, July 1 to come home. We headed to my mom and dad's and started getting ready for the 4th of July (Luke's favorite holiday!)